Jeri Buffington Hintz

March 14, 1956 – March 9, 2024

First, no one can believe that someone else would have to write Jeri’s obituary: We’re shocked that she hadn’t written it herself before she passed! Her irreverent wit, her facility with words–they were unmatched. As such, this will be a pale version of what she could have given us herself.

Jeri Lou Buffington was born on March 14, 1956, and died on March 9, 2024, just five days shy of her 68th birthday. She grew up with parents Verle and Gloria Buffington and brother Tom on a farm outside of Marquette, Kansas.

Tom remembers her as an animal lover and a “great partner in crime” who learned to drive using his go-cart and later kept pace with him on his motorcycle while riding her own Honda 50 mini-bike. After school, while her mom finished up her work at the beauty shop in town, Jeri Lou would hang out with her Grandma Ada Buffington, becoming best buddies. A musician from a young age, Jeri Lou played piano, and she and her mom would entertain local clubs with their singing and playing. Later on, she spent her summers serving as a “rangerette” at Kanopolis Lake.

She studied speech and journalism at Fort Hays State University during the ‘70s era of halter tops and rock-n-roll. After a brief stint in Denton, TX, she returned to Hays. In 1993 she earned her master’s degree in English there–while raising children and working as the church secretary for Trinity Lutheran Church. She charmed and wrangled teenagers as an English teacher at Thomas More Prep-Marian High School in Hays, Kansas, and at Quinter High School. In Kirksville, Missouri, she was the Education Coordinator at A.T. Still's Museum of Osteopathic Medicine before her diagnosis with LAM, a rare and terminal lung disease that forced an early retirement.

If you ever met Jeri, you remembered her–because no one else could make you laugh as she could, and no one else could match her insightful wit. She was a delightful mix of contradictions: staunch feminist and Barbie fanatic, rural Kansan and unwavering Democrat–as likely to flip you off as to cry with you at a moving church service. And because everyone who met her remembered her, you knew you’d better allow extra time when going anywhere with her. You had to allow time for multiple conversations and all that laughter.

Even greater than her sense of humor was her love for her family–a love that sustained her during those unjust years struggling with LAM. Her husband, Ernst Hintz, was never far from her side–especially in the “Geezer Suite,” which is what Jeri called their tiny den-turned-bedroom on the ground floor of their house, when climbing stairs was no longer an option. Her four children brought her such joy: Jessica Dawson Collier (Jonnas) (Lafayette, CO); Matt Dawson (Kirksville, MO); Kira Hintz (Bentonville, AR); and Katya Hintz (Iowa City, IA).

Finally, those fortunate enough to call her “friend” enjoyed a level of kinship, support, and downright fun that has left them with enduring memories. Whatever “dark night of the soul” anyone was facing, Jeri was there with a well-placed barb targeting whatever wretch was causing her friend pain. Or maybe she’d show up with a plate of banana muffins. Or likely both.

Jeri was preceded in death by her parents. Those of us left behind must each find our way in a world so very diminished by her absence. As for Jeri, at least she didn’t live to see Trump’s second term. That would have killed her.

A Celebration of Life for Jeri will be held on Sunday, March 9, 2025, from 1:00-5:00 at the J.O. Sundstrom Conference Center in Lindsborg, Kansas. For more information on this event, go to https://www.greenvelope.com/card/.public-9d666d78f3044126a8d85fa198d6ff8737303738393831

Jeri’s Favorite quotes:

"Academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so low."

- attributed to Henry Kissinger

"If assholes could fly there'd be no daylight."

- Al Franken

"What fresh hell is this?"

- Dorothy Parker