Bernie Kern could organize anything, from a committee to an inaugural ball.
Kern, a stalwart Democrat who worked on many political campaigns but never ran for office, died Nov. 9. She was 88.
A service is planned at 10 a.m. Jan. 16 in the Chambers Grant Salon at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House.
“She was nonstop,” said former Colorado first lady Dottie Lamm. Kern organized two of former Gov. Dick Lamm’s inaugural celebrations.
She was a connoisseur and even “organized the wine cellar in the governor’s mansion,” Lamm said.
“She could have run the universe,” said her daughter Patty Shelton, who lives in Golden.
Bernie Kern was active in the League of Women Voters, Colorado Common Cause, Colorado Women’s Forum and Colorado Democratic Women’s PAC.
Much of her work was advising and organizing behind the scenes, Lamm said.
“She ran several campaigns and was good at telling people what to do,” said her son, David Kern of Nashville. “She did that during the campaign and continued to do it after the person was elected,” he said, “sometimes not to their liking.
“She was a strong force who always said what she believed. Sometimes politicians aren’t able to listen to advice,” he said.
Kern’s main issue was equality — for women, minorities, religious and ethnic groups and for women’s right to choice.
“She believed education was the cure for everything,” her son said.
In a 1966 interview, she said: “It’s fun to learn, to listen to yourself express opinions and really say something that is based on fact.”
“She was frank,” Lamm said, “and not in awe of a governor. She was very dismissive of any religion and sometimes tried to argue people out of their religion. She was a character, and sometimes we had to slow her down, but she was also a big-hearted person.”
Kern’s political positions flowed through the family. Both her children are Democrats, “and so are the grandchildren and probably those yet to be born,” Shelton said.
Bernie Cronheim was born in Birmingham, Ala., on March 25, 1922. She attended the University of Wisconsin.
She married Dr. Fred Kern Jr. in 1942, and they moved to Denver in 1952. He died in 1997.
In addition to her son and daughter, she is survived by seven grandchildren. She was preceded in death by a daughter, Katherine McDonald, in 1993.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
