Jeanette Biribauer Merkl, 96, of South Orange, NJ, passed away peacefully on March 23, 2022, surrounded by her family in Wilmington, DE, where she had been living in recent years.

Jeanette was born in New York City and was proud of her Manhattan roots. She grew up on East 56th Street, the daughter of the late Anna (Baldasty) and Anton Biribauer. She often attributed her longevity to the five flights of stairs that she had to climb as a child in their tenement walk up. Central Park was her playground, museums were all around, and her public education was free. She shared her lifelong love of New York with her children, making sure they were comfortable riding the trains, buses, and subways (and walking many city blocks) to visit The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the American Museum of Natural History, the South Street Seaport, and venturing to Queens for occasional NY Mets games and the 1964/65 World's Fair. And she shared with them the special tradition of "Christmas in New York," making annual December visits to Rockefeller Center, St. Patrick's Cathedral, and the Christmas windows at Macy's, Saks, Lever Brothers, and Altman's.

Jeanette attended Hunter High School, Hunter College where she received her Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English, summa cum laude, and Barnard College where she received her Master of Library Science. Following Barnard, she secured an internship with the U.S. Library of Congress. After returning to New York, her friend and Library of Congress roommate, Kathleen Crilly, introduced her to Anthony Merkl, a coworker at the Fordham University Library. Tony and Jeanette married in 1957, and lived in the Bronx, NY where their four children were born, before settling in South Orange, New Jersey where they raised their family. Jeanette worked as a medical librarian at the Winifred B. Baldwin School of Nursing at Orange Memorial Hospital in Orange, NJ.

Jeanette passed along her passion for nature sharing her knowledge of plants and animals (especially birds) with her children through frequent trips to zoos and nature preserves such as the Great Swamp. She and Tony enjoyed going to classical music concerts together and spending family vacation time on a lake in the shadow of Mt. Kearsarge in Warner, New Hampshire. An African proverb (attributed to Amadou Hampâté Bâ) states that "when an elder passes, a library is burned to the ground." This was certainly true of Jeanette.

In addition to her parents, Jeanette was predeceased by her loving husband, Anthony Merkl, son-in-law, Joseph McCann, and brother, Frank Biribauer.

Jeanette is survived by her daughters, Anneliese "Anne" McCann and Christine (Jerry) Baral; sons, Thomas and William; grandchildren, Glenn Baral, Kristine (Kevin) McCann Harkins, and Joseph (Nicole) McCann; and great grandchildren, Alek Harkins, Maks Harkins, Joseph McCann, and Reilly McCann.

Services will be held at a later date.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in Jeanette's name to any of the following organizations which she supported throughout her life:

Delaware Humane Association , delawarehumane.org

Doctors without Borders , doctorswithoutborders.org

Hunter College , hunter.cuny.edu/annualfund

Main Street Warner , mainstreetwarnerinc.org

The Raptor Trust , TheRaptorTrust.org

Public Radio and Television:

▪ NJ PBS , njtvonline.org

▪ NHPR , nhpr.org

▪ WNYC Radio , wnyc.org