Across the Generations

One of the best things about Starr King Church is the interaction among people of all ages. I have enjoyed getting to know many of our more senior members. I am interested in the life of anyone who has lived a long, noteworthy life. It turns out that everyone’s life is noteworthy. I want to start an occasional feature here of interviews with our more senior members of Starr King Church . I was talking with Pat Kellner recently about this idea. She readily agreed to be the first interview. At the end of November 2006 I sat down with Pat to ask about her life from birth to the present. I recorded that interview;what follows is a small summary. I would like to start a church library of member oral histories.

Pat Kellner’s Story Pat was born on Mother’s Day, 14 May 1922 in Petaluma , California . That makes her 84 years old and coming up on 85 this spring. What really stands out in Pat’s memory of childhood is that her mother (Lilly Irene Goree, born 2 February 1896 in Frost, Texas) had what we would now call “a personality disorder.” Pat says it was like sitting on a volcano. To deal with the situation, Pat developed a sense of humor, and that pleased her mother. Pat says her father (Rolland Hills, born 11 September 1899 in Kansas) also acted the clown, so there was a lot of laughter in the house despite her mother’s at-times-troubled emotional state.

Pat grew up in Petaluma . She lived on “I” Street and graduated from high school in 1940. She went to one of the first community colleges, in Santa Rosa . Though her family was by no means wealthy, they decided to invest in Pat’s future and raised the money necessary for her to attend a prestigious and expensive private university. Pat says her drama teacher at the University of Southern California was drunk most of the time. He believed he could make a great actor out of anyone by breaking them down until, angry or in tears, they then would give the performance of their lives. She says that is what he tried to do with her, and he “almost succeeded.”

Pat graduated from USC. She stayed on an extra year to get a teaching credential, then took her first teaching job in Sacramento . When her father died, Pat came home to care for her mother. On 18 December 1949 she married Lloyd John Kellner (known as “Kell”). Pat and Kell lived with her mother in Petaluma while Pat taught school in Sonoma and Kell, a veteran, went to Santa Rosa Junior College to get his teaching degree. Kell got a job at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and they moved to Berkeley in 1951. In 1953 their first son, Clinton Victor Kellner, was born. They moved to an Oakland apartment, and in a short time were able to buy a house in San Lorenzo . Pat worked in her home until in 1962 she took part-time work as a substitute teacher in the San Lorenzo School District . She says she got tired of the poverty of only one income. She did this for the next ten years. She told her students, “Well, it’s the bottom of the barrel today.” Actually, many teachers requested her, and the kids liked her because they thought she was “cool.” In 1956, son Christopher John Kellner was born. Both of Pat’s sons have PhDs. Christopher is an ornithologist, Clinton an entomologist. Katherine Irene Kellner, born in 1959, took after Pat’s interest in drama and works in theater.

Politically, Pat describes herself as “on the left, probably more than most members of our congregation.” Her parents were Republicans; she had no political identification as a teen. In her senior year of high school, a teacher told the class they should read ideas different from their own. Pat read a book about Franklin Roosevelt. Amazed, she grew to admire Roosevelt but did not tell her Republican parents. At USC a political science professor had worked in the Roosevelt Administration. At that point she wrote home about her changing thinking. Her parents eventually also became Democrats. She remembers vividly the assassinations of the Kennedys, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Though those events were tragedies, Pat remembers the era as a time of hope, the best era of her life because of progress in Civil Rights, particularly the Voting Rights Act. The downside was the Vietnam War. She got involved in an Episcopal church because the minister was vocally anti-war. She loved his sermons and the social justice work, but she did not like the rituals or the creed. She always thought she should be going to a Unitarian Church . Meeting minister Mark Belletini in the late 1970s led Pat to start attending and then to join Starr King.

What Pat likes about Starr King is that you don’t have to believe in anything you don’t. She likes the emphasis on nature and caring for the earth. Most of all she likes Morning Discovery. She lauds Carol Henrie, the Morning Discovery facilitator, as “so bright,” “so hard working” and “kind.” Starr King has been a big help to Pat, and she is grateful for the support she receives.

Pat’s advice to young people: Don’t be afraid of failure. She still enjoys learning. She encourages everyone to open themselves to new ideas, except those that are harmful to others. Ever hopeful, she still wishes fervently for the end to wars. ~Bob

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