Jeannette M. Oundjian

Jeannette Oundjian, age 94, passed away on Tuesday, October 20, 2020 at the Wayne Center Nursing Home due to natural causes. The funeral mass will be livestreamed on Friday, October 23, 2020 at 11am EST from St. Gregory Armenian Apostolic Church with Der Nerses Manoogian officiating.

Jeannette was born in Aleppo, Syria to Dr. Hagop and Yester (b. Yaylian) Vartanian, the second of three children. The family moved to Damascus when she was still an infant, where she attended the French Sisters of Besançon School for Girls. After graduating, she married Meroujan Oundjian and moved to Beirut, Lebanon. They were blessed with three children: Sonia (Dr. Michel) Nalbantian, Miro (Christine) and Rosette (Dr. Jacques ) Khoury.

Due to the Lebanese civil war, Jeannette and Meroujan moved to the United States, settling in Havertown, PA. Jeannette embraced her new community by becoming an active member of the St Gregory Ladies’ Guild as well as the Armenian Sisters’ Academy Ladies Auxiliary. Jeannette was a gifted individual, displaying talent with languages, music, sewing and all crafts of kitchen wizardry. Besides Armenian, she spoke French, Turkish, Arabic and English. She played the piano and loved to sing. Till her last days and after having forgotten so much else, she could still sing the hymns of her beloved church, remembering all words. She knitted outfits for her grandchildren. She loved traveling, going out to restaurants, concerts or musicals and dressing to the nines everywhere she went, her hair coiffed, tasteful makeup and a classic fashionable flair to her clothes and accessories. For anyone who was lucky enough to taste her cooking or baking, she was simply exceptional in her preparation of food. She poured her love into feeding us, filling table after table, holiday after holiday with her artisanal abilities to create delicious meals that we cannot always precisely recreate. And her presentation of each dish--it would have pleased royalty! Most of all, she was kind as she was loving and this love was returned by all who knew her. With that, she lived her life to the fullest.

Besides her three children and their spouses, she is survived by her younger brother, Jirayr Vartanian; eight adoring grandchildren, Barig, Lorig, Tsolin, Taleen, Natasha, Noyemie, Meroujan and Dalita; ten great-grandchildren, Adéné, Aramayis, Ocean, Thomas, Achilles, Endza, Noor, Van, Rosdom and Nazani. She is preceded in death by her older brother, Vartan Vartanian and great-grandson Nishan Moughamian.

Her funeral service will be private.

The church portion of the ceremony will be live streamed on Church's Facebook page.

In Lieu of flower donations are for St. Gregory's Church and All Armenian Fund for Artzakh

You may send your donation on line to church by clicking this link. Church will forward 50% of the donation to Himnatram or All Armenian Fund in Mrs. Oundjian's memory.

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