Jacqueline was born November 3, 1937, in Lemay, Missouri, outside St Louis. She was the daughter of Louise Brunner and Charles Arnhold.
Something of a tomboy, she found the things she and her dad did together—fishing, crafting things, listening to Cardinals games—always more interesting than the things most girls did. An inquisitive and active kid, Jacky did well in school and found encouraging teachers in high school after she moved to Hermann, Missouri.
Jacky went on to excel in Nursing School at Deaconess Hospital in St. Louis, graduating near the top of her class, and she became a skilled & sought-after ER nurse. She frequented the St. Louis Zoo often enough that the zookeepers began allowing her to help them care for the animals. Over the years, Jacky worked part-time as a school nurse, a workplace nurse, and in a nursing home in Greeley, Colorado.
Jacqueline Arnhold met Allen Kallenbach in Nursing school, while he was attending seminary in St. Louis. They married in 1960, and afterwards the two of them served various church congregations in Salamonia, Indiana (where daughter Laurel was born); Louisville, Kentucky (where son David was born); and Greeley, Colorado. Though in the unenviable position of “preacher’s wife,” she was active in the church—taught Sunday School, taught kindergarten, and sang in the choir. Jacky loved holidays, particularly Christmas when she adorned the tree and set up wooden homes, church and steeple hand-carved by her father.
Shortly after they were married, Jacky got the two of them to enjoy the outdoors together. They bought a small aluminum camper trailer and enjoyed it over the next 40 years on family vacations in places like the Red River Gorge (KY) & Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Mom and Dad both loved hiking and car camping and did so across vast swaths of America, carrying the kids on their backs.
Jacky had a very nice voice. She sang lullabies to her young children as they fell asleep. At Christmastime, her voice anchored the carols we sang during Advent. And she loved singing campfire songs with the family while we toasted marshmallows around the fire.
Mom traded in her career as a nurse for motherhood and being a minister’s wife. She loved playing with her children. Laurel and David both remember it was Mom, not Dad, who taught us to throw a baseball, climb trees, and jump rope!
Jacky and Allen began to pine for the mountains of the west. They moved to Greeley, Colorado in 1975, and purchased a mountain property tucked far back in the woods, for solitude. With its unsurpassed views of Longs Peak and Mt. Meeker, they built a rustic cabin together—without electricity, power tools, or even vehicle access to the worksite. It was forever to be a place where Jacky loved and found solitude, beauty, peace, and simplicity.
In retirement, Jacky and Allen moved to Estes Park in 1993 to surround themselves with mountains completely. Mom designed the home she wanted to live in for the rest of her life, and they built a beautiful place on the outskirts of Estes. Mom retreated inwardly in those final years. She was private, not social like Allen, whose extroversion drove her nuts. She kept and corresponded with a few close female friends. More and more she found spirituality not in the Christian church she endured much of her life, but instead turned to nature for solace and inspiration. She was happiest living quietly at home, where she could read book after book, love her cat Taschi, bake bread, plant flowers in her window boxes, write in her journals, watch birds at the feeder, and admire the wildflowers every spring.
Those of you who may have known Jacky mostly in the last 25 years of her life probably didn’t see the down-to-earth outdoorswoman she was. She taught us all to identify and appreciate the little things—the flowers, trees, birds & animals, and to preserve them always. She hiked many trails in her life and climbed many mountains, but no trek was as hard as her battle against a body that failed her. Arthritis, fibromyalgia, and osteoarthritic scoliosis took their toll on her back, legs, and digestive system. She lived with regular, constant pain. She became depressed as her once-strong body failed her, and she could no longer get outside and enjoy all the things that made her thrive.
Mom was adamant that when her time came, she wanted to die at her home, on her own terms. She fulfilled her wish on April 25th, 2025. Jacky, who was 87 when she left the world, wished to have her ashes scattered along a mountain stream among the wildflowers of her beloved Rocky Mountains.
Jacqueline is survived by her husband, Allen; a son, David Kallenbach; and a daughter and her husband, Laurel Kallenbach & Kenneth Aikin.
Also mourning Jacky’s death are the families of her cousins: Charles and Betty Brunner, Robert Brunner, Martha & John Moushey, Erna & Howard Roach, Dorothy & Frank Eagan, Eleanor & Allen Buschmeyer, Margaret and Virgil Fricke, and Linda & Elmer Scheible.
“You belong among the Wildflowers…Far away from your trouble and worries…You belong somewhere you feel free.” Tom Petty, Wildflowers.