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Community leader Jane West of Atherton dies at 92

A memorial Mass will be held at 10 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 21, at St. Raymond Catholic Church, 1100 Santa Cruz Ave. in Menlo Park, for Jane West of Menlo Park. A reception will follow at 1 p.m. at the Menlo Circus Club, 190 Park Lane, in Atherton.

Ms. West, who worked tirelessly on behalf of low-income seniors through Peninsula Volunteers Inc., died Sept. 27 at Stanford Medical Center, following a short illness. She was 92.

Ms. West served on the Menlo Park Housing Commission for 16 years and received a Golden Acorn Award in 1995 from the Menlo Park Chamber of Commerce. That same year, she was a nominee for the San Mateo County Women's Hall of Fame.

A fifth generation Californian, Ms. West was born in Sacramento. She graduated cum laude from UC Berkeley, married James Joubert in 1939, and moved to the Menlo Park area in 1949. The couple had two daughters, Mary Jane and Katherine Jill Joubert.

Following the death of her first husband in 1955, she married Cecil O. West in 1960. They were married for 30 years until his death in 1990.

Ms. West joined the Peninsula Volunteers in 1956 and served in many capacities. She was awarded many honors from the Peninsula Volunteers, including the Beth Kuechler Award in 2002 and the first PVA Diamond Award in 2007. In 1995, the remodeled great room at Little House was re-named The Jane West Room.

Community service by Ms. West included serving on the Girl Scout Council and the St. Raymond Catholic Church Council. She was a member of the Serra Club of Palo Alto, the Palo Alto Junior Auxiliary to the Stanford Convalescent Home, and the Woodside-Atherton Auxiliary to Lucile Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford.

She is survived by her daughter, Katherine Jill McCalister of San Antonio, Texas; brother Edward T. Rooney of Sacramento; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.

Donations may be made to the Peninsula Volunteers Inc.; the Jane West Memorial Fund for Annual Giving, 800 Middle Ave., Menlo Park, CA 94025; or St. Raymond Catholic Church, 1100 Santa Cruz Ave., Menlo Park, CA 94025.