Harriet J. Nehring

Harriet J. Nehring, 81, Lawrence, died Tuesday, Aug. 14, 2007, at Alterra Clarebridge Cottage in Topeka. No services are planned.She was born Aug. 18, 1925, in Los Angeles, the daughter of Samuel and Willa Long Burgess. She received a Bachelor of Arts in economics from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1948. She moved to Lawrence in 1958.Mrs. Nehring worked for the University of California, Los Angeles. She was active in the Lawrence League of Women Voters and Unitarian Fellowship of Lawrence. She was also a volunteer for the American Red Cross, Bert Nash Community Mental Health Center and the Villages.She was one of the founders of Kansans for Improvement of Nursing Homes, now Kansas Advocates for Better Care in 1975 and served as executive director until she retired in 1990. She was also a founding member of National Citizens Coalition for Nursing Home Reform in 1976 and an organizer of the first Kansas Governor’s Conference on Aging in 1977.She married Earl A. Nehring on Aug. 18, 1956. He survives, of the home. Other survivors include a son, Neil, Austin, Texas; and a daughter, Nancy Brandon, Manitoba, Canada; two brothers, Jack Burgess, Aiea, Hawaii, and Bud Burgess, Paradise, Calif.; two sisters, Pauline Buttery, Mission, and Kay Davis, Sun Lakes, Ariz.; and four grandchildren.The family suggests memorials to Kansas Advocates for Better Care or Unitarian Fellowship of Lawrence, sent in care of Warren-McElwain Mortuary.