Verna Reintjes

Verne Reintjes passed away peacefully on January 20, 2025, surrounded by her family. 

She was born on April 28, 1923, to Belle (Higgins) and Frank Vernon Maroney. She and her older sister Margaret were raised in southern California where her parents owned a furniture store. Verne graduated from Stanford University with a BA in Psychology in 1944 and went on to earn her MA in Clinical Psychology a year later. After working for two years as a psychologist with San Fransisco Juvenile Court, Verne took a job as a clinical psychologist in Honolulu, Hawaii. It was in Hawaii she met her future husband John who was a graduate student at the University of Hawaii. They married on Oahu overlooking the Pacific Ocean in March 1950. In 1952 when the first of their four children Anne was nine months old, John and Verne moved to Delaware where Christine and Susan were born. John’s work as a marine biologist with the US Fish and Wildlife Service took them to Maine where their son Peter was born. In 1956 the family moved to the coast of North Carolina and settled in Morehead City.

Beginning 1962, when her children were all in school, until 1967, Verne traveled throughout eastern NC as a clinical psychologist for the NC Department of Social Services. In 1967 she began working as a clinical psychologist with the Neuse Mental Health Center and continued until her retirement in 1985. Throughout her life, Verne was active in her community with the PTA at Camp Glenn Elementary School, Summer Science School, Carteret Community Theater, Carteret Literacy Council, Beaufort Historical Association, Carteret County Friends of the Library, Carteret County Domestic Violence Program, and the Guardian ad Litem program. She was a member of the Coastal Fellowship Unitarian Church for over thirty years.

Verne and John spent several years participating in American Revolutionary re-enactments in Beaufort as well as in other locations. Verne demonstrated spinning, weaving and using natural dyes for school groups and visitors on the Beaufort Historical grounds. She was an accomplished harpist and a member, along with her daughter Christine, of the musical group Irish Cream.

During their marriage, Verne and John traveled to Europe and throughout the United States. They especially enjoyed returning several times to Ireland, Greece, and Hawaii. After John’s death in 1988, Verne continued traveling with friends, enjoying trips to New Zealand, Australia, China, Italy, and Ireland. Her love of travel began at an early age as recorded in a journal written in 1939 when Verne and her older sister Margaret set off from California on a road trip to circle the border of the United States. With $300 and a gas card, they completed the trip in thirty days with $100 to spare. 

Taking a job in Hawaii at age twenty-four, marrying a marine biologist, having four children in less than five years, visiting the Great Wall of China, and paragliding in New Zealand when she was 80 years old are just some of the ways Verne lived life to the fullest...and defied the caution her parents received when she was a toddler that due to a heart murmur, she probably would not reach adulthood. Verne’s maternal great grandfather, Levi Hailey, lived to be 101 and she often said the secret to her longevity was following the advice he gave her when she interviewed him for a high school class assignment, “Never meet trouble halfway.” 

Verne will be remembered by her family and friends as a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother who cared deeply for others, especially those who were marginalized and in need. She inspired her family with her love of learning, sense of adventure, concern for others, generosity and optimism. Verne was a voracious reader, loved to play the harp, piano and concertina, enjoyed spinning and weaving and hosting family get-togethers, especially luaus. Verne loved Carteret County where she spent most of her life.

She will be greatly missed by her three daughters, Anne Krouse, Christine Martin (Ken), and Susan Reintjes; her son, Peter Reintjes; her four grandchildren, Hailey Perez (Jason), Laura Gould (Shawn), Stephen Krouse (Megan), and Sarah Reintjes-Tolen; her four great grandchildren, Elizabeth Perez, Jack Henry Perez, Eleanor Gould, and Vera Gould; her former son-in-law, Charles Krouse; and former daughter-in-law, Aurora Siegl. Her family feels sincere gratitude to her dedicated caregivers, Laurie Mustain, Lorna Navarro, Jennifer Lee, Keiko Kuroki, Donna Bennett, Toni Bender, Bonnie Elixson and Andy Haning.

Verne is predeceased by her husband, John; her parents, Frank and Belle Maroney; sister, Margaret Maroney; sister-in-law, Sister Gretchen Reintjes; in-laws, Matt and Evelyn Reintjes; and daughter-in-law, Lea Freeman.

A remembrance service will be scheduled at a future date and Verne will be laid to rest with her husband John in the National Cemetery in New Bern. Memorial contributions may be made to the charity of one’s choice.

Family and friends are welcome to submit online condolences at www.mundenfuneralhome.net.

Arrangements by Munden Funeral Home & Crematory in Morehead City, NC.