KERR FAMILY CHRONICLES

© Christopher Earls Brennen

CHAPTER TWELVE

THE CHILDREN OF SAMUEL KERR AND SARAH MACDONALD

Samuel and Sadie Kerr had four children:

  1. Margaret Elizabeth Kerr was born on Dec.8, 1940. Born with a deficient heart, Margaret died on Jan.2, 1941 and was buried in the Brackaville Parish Church graveyard in Coalisland, County Tyrone.
  2. Katharine Doreen Kerr was born on Dec.19, 1942, in the home of her maternal grandparents in Line Side, Coalisland, County Tyrone just hours after her father had left for the North African theatre of war. It was months before he learnt of her birth. She was christened in Brackaville Parish Church, Coalisland. Doreen spent the early years of her life living with her mother and later her sister in a cottage on the estate of Lord Charlemont at Drumcairne near Stewartstown, County Tyrone. She became a favorite of Lord Charlemont and he often invited her to tea. She remembers one day when she was sent home because the doctor was going to visit. Instead of going home she played around outside and observed that the doctor had left a small boy in his car parked outside. She was later to marry that small boy. Doreen first saw her father when she was nearly four years old and he returned from the war a sick man. The family moved to Fairmount Park, Dungannon just before Christmas of 1947 and Doreen attended the Union Place Primary School in Dungannon. After passing the 11 plus examination she enrolled at the Dungannon High School for Girls. At the High School she excelled at English and History, winning several awards. After graduation Doreen went to Queen's University, Belfast where she also studied English and History. At the end of her second year at Queen's she married Christopher Brennen whom she had met during the summer of 1960 at the seaside resort of Portrush, County Antrim. Doreen and Christopher were married in 1963, in the St.Giles Registry Office in Oxford, England. The reception following the wedding was held in the famous Bear Inn in Woodstock, near Oxford and featured entertainment by Chris's Oxford friends and more bottles of champagne than there were guests. That September of 1963 Doreen returned to college at Queen's in order to complete her degree. Within two weeks in 1964 she completed her exams and gave birth to her first daughter, Dana Michele Brennen. Later that summer Doreen and Chris set up home in a small house at 23 Sandford Road, Littlemore on the outskirts of Oxford where they lived while Chris completed his doctorate. In October 1966, Chris went to work at the National Physical Laboratory and they lived for a brief period in Teddington and for most of the time in Shepperton. During this time their second daughter, Katharine, was born at a maternity hospital in Chiswick in 1967. At the end of 1968, Doreen and the two girls returned to live with her parents in Dungannon for a few months in order to save for the fares to the United States. Thus, for three months, Doreen worked as a teacher at the Aughnacloy Secondary Intermediate School. Then, on Dec. 31, 1968, Doreen, Chris and the two girls left the U.K. for the United States. After brief stops in New York and Boston, they arrived in Pasadena, California, where Chris was to work at the California Institute of Technology. For six months they lived in an apartment at 830 N.El Molino, Pasadena before renting a house at 1915 Las Lunas Street. During these early years in California they extensively explored the western United States, camping along the way. In 1972 their son Patrick was born in the Huntington Memorial Hospital, Pasadena. Then, in 1976, they purchased their first home at 3840 Mayfair Drive, Pasdena. In 1980, they moved to 360 Olive Tree Lane, Sierra Madre. In 1983 they temporarily relocated to a house at 355 S. Holliston, Pasdena, the residence of the Master of Student Houses at Caltech, returning to Sierra Madre in 1987 when Chris completed his tenure as Master. Doreen died of cancer on Aug.22, 2007, and was buried beside her son, Patrick, in Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California. Doreen and Chris had three children described in the next chapter.
  3. Elizabeth Jacqueline MacDonald Kerr
  4. Christine Flora Louise Kerr

Christopher E. Brennen