The mother of Agnes Kerr, Mary Hurley, died February 22, 1900, age 37.

In the 1900 Federal Census of Leech Street, Pittsburgh, Agnes Kerr, age 2, born in January 1898 in Indiana, lived in the home of her father, Jerome M. Kerr, a widower, age 43. Agnes' siblings in the home were William, 12, Albert, 9, Catherine, 6, all born in Indiana. Mr. Kerr was employed as a railroad clerk. - The Social Security Death Index states her birthdate as October 15, 1987.

The father, Jerome M. Kerr, a Civil War Veteran, died in 1909.

In 1910, Agnes Kerr, 12, and her sister, Kathryn, 16, were living with their paternal aunt, Miss Kathryn Kerr, age 60, on Euclid Avenue, Pittsburgh. The record indicates the girls were born in Kentucky, but it was their mother who was born in Kentucky.

The 1920 Federal Census finds Agnes Kerr, 22, born in Indiana, father born in Pennsylvania, mother born in Kentucky, as a student nurse at St. Francis Hospital.

In the 1930 Federal Census, Catherine Jakova, 26, her sister, Mary, 27, and a married boarder, Agness Dyer, 31, all born in Pennsylvania, resided at 4929 Dearborn St. Pittsburgh. Agnes was the former Agnes Kerr. Catherine, Mary, and Agness are all listed as private duty nurses. Catherine graduated from the St. Francis School of Nursing in 1924.

The obituary of Agnes Kerr Dyer's son, Jack Dyer, born in 1926, indicates that Agnes and her husband separated when he was a young child.

From a list of Pennsylvania Registered Nurses, 1940-1941, published by the Pennsylvania State Board of Nurse Examiners: "Agnes R. Kerr Dyer, 5830 Alder St., Pittsburgh."

When nurse, Catherine Jakova, died in 1989, she is named as the "aunt" of the son and daughter of Agnes Kerr Dyer. It does not appear that they were actually biologically related, but the unmarried Jakova sisters must have had a close relationship with the two children, Dorothy (Dyer) Huster and Jack Dyer.

OBITUARY OF CATHERINE JAKOVA: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Jan 25, 1989 - JAKOVA, On Monday, Jan. 23, 1989, Catherine Jakova; beloved sister of the late Mary E. Jakova; aunt of Dorothy Huster of Lima, Ohio, and Jack Dyer of Toledo, Ohio. Friends are being received McCabe Bros., Inc., Funeral Home, 5300 Penn Avenue..... Burial in St. Lawrence O'Toole Church.

Born on October 15, 1897, Agnes Kerr Dyer died in December 1982. In the 1930s, at least, she was active in the Pennsylvania State Nurses' Association.

OBITUARY OF DAUGHTER, DOROTHY DYER HUSTER: Dorothy Ann Huster, 84, died the evening of Feb. 17, 2010, at St. Rita's Medical Center. - She was born May 23, 1925, in Cleveland to C. D. and Agnes Kerr Dyer, who preceded her in death. On Aug. 6, 1949, she married Raymond Karl Huster, who died April 26, 1996. - Mrs. Huster was a registered nurse. She began and was responsible for the opening of the medical department at the Allen County jail. She worked in prisons and opened up medical units in other prisons. She had worked with Dr. Martinez in his office, as a traveling nurse, and at St. Rita's Medical Center. She wrote children's stories for her children and grandchildren. She was a member of St. John Catholic Church, Lima. She was a member of the Women's Health Institute. She was an avid reader. - Survivors include 13 children, Raymond (Sandra) Huster, John Huster, Tim Huster, Betsy Huster, Joe (Karen) Huster, Dan (Bonnie) Huster, Julie (Rob) Begonia and Sue (David) Donnal, all of Lima, Trish Huster, of Deltona, Fla., Tony Huster, of Castleberry, Fla., Bob (Pam) Huster, of Sioux City, Iowa, Karl (Sharon) Huster, of Oviedo, Fla., and Margie (Scott) Smith, of Toledo; 28 grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and close family friends, Kim Archer, Monica Ann and Keith Purcell and David Shepherd, all of Lima, and Linda Park and John Sheatz, both of Florida. - She was preceded in death by a brother, Jack Dyer; and close family friend, Deb Henry. - Mass of Christian Burial will begin at 11 a.m. Monday at St. John Catholic Church, Lima. Burial will be in Gethsemani Cemetery. - Friends may call from 2 to 4 and 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at Siferd-Orians Funeral Home. - Condolences may be expressed at www.siferd-oriansfuneralhome.com. - Lima News, The (OH) - Thursday, February 18, 2010

OBITUARY OF SON, JACK DYER (b 1926; d Oct 12, 2007): John "Jack" Dyer, a retired Toledo Edison public relations executive who taught at the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University and was involved in numerous volunteer efforts, including serving as the Salvation Army's national media contact for months at New York's Ground Zero in 2002, died Friday in his Sylvania Township home. - He was 81 and had been in poor health for six months, suffering from complications of cancer diagnosed seven years ago, his son, Ron, said. - Mr. Dyer was in Toledo Edison's public relations department for two stints, serving as vice president of public relations before he retired in 1985. - Among his challenges were presenting what seemed to be annual rate increases and explaining troublesome performance at the Davis-Besse nuclear plant, recalled LeMoyne Mercer, who worked under Mr. Dyer. Creating an understandable message from the bureaucratic intricacies of utility regulation was one of the tasks he did best, Mr. Mercer said. - "It's way too complex for anybody to explain in a sound bite," he said. "One of his strengths was identifying what the public was ready to understand and what there was no point in telling them." - Throughout his life, Mr. Dyer felt an obligation to help others, his son said. His many volunteer efforts were recognized with honors that included a Kiwanis Distinguished Service Award, Mid-Michigan Citizen of the Year honors from WILX-TV, and the Michigan Bar Association's Liberty Bell Award. - "If I believe in a cause, I'll go to where I think I can be useful," he told The Blade from Ground Zero when he was 75. - But nothing he had seen in his years as a Salvation Army volunteer prepared him for the devastation he showed news reporters at the ruins of the World Trade Center and when he set up interviews with grieving relatives. "I've never seen anything like this," he told The Blade. - Locally, Mr. Dyer was on the Salvation Army advisory board for 18 years. - He grew up in Pittsburgh during the Great Depression and his parents separated when he was young. From age 3 to 12, he lived in a Catholic boarding school for boys while his mother worked as a nurse and his elder sister was at a boarding school for girls, and he remembered those years as very harsh, his son said. - Mr. Dyer graduated from Pittsburgh's Central Catholic High School in 1944 and joined the Navy, which sent him to Bucknell University to study engineering, made him a signalman on the USS Hornet, and then stationed him in its public relations office in Hawaii for six months. - Mr. Dyer was discharged from the Navy in 1946 and enrolled in Bowling Green State University, where he graduated with a double major in journalism and business in 1950. - He was a reporter at the Findlay Republican Courier and then was responsible for publishing the semiweekly Leader Enterprise in Montpelier in the early 1950s. It was there that he met and married Joan Bishop. - He joined Toledo Edison in 1954 and went to Consumers Power Co. in Jackson, Mich., four years later for a job in public relations. - He was a Republican and took leaves from Consumers Power to work on Michigan Gov. George Romney's campaigns in the 1960s. - It was in Jackson that his wife died of cancer in 1969, leaving him with four children. Their daughter Jan, who was 15, took care of the younger three - all adopted - who ranged in age from 2 to 6 with the help of a housekeeper during the hours she was at school. After Jan went to college, Mr. Dyer sometimes took the younger children with him on business trips, she said. - He married his second wife, the former Portia Duncan, in 1973. That year he became director of public relations for the Edison Electric Institute in New York. - After five years he returned to Toledo as assistant vice president for public relations with Toledo Edison. He was made vice president two years later. - In the 1980s and 1990s, he was an adjunct instructor, teaching about journalism, public relations, and mass communications at the University of Toledo and Bowling Green State University. - "He loved seeing a student get it," his daughter Jan said. "He loved that more than anything." - After taking early retirement from Toledo Edison, Mr. Dyer and his wife started the communications firm Dyer & Associates. One of his main projects was editing the Journal of Laser Applications, a quarterly, technical publication for laser scientists. - Portia Dyer died in 2000. - Surviving are his daughters, Jan Dyer and Jenny Deaton; sons, Ron and Shawn Dyer; stepsons, Duncan and Dennis Hampton; sister, Dorothy Huster; seven grandchildren; two stepgrandchildren; and four stepgreat-grandchildren. - Visitation is from 4-8 p.m. today in Walker Funeral Home in Sylvania Township and the funeral is at 10 a.m. tomorrow in Epworth United Methodist Church. - The family suggests donations to the local Salvation Army, the church, or Hospice of Northwest Ohio. - Blade, The (Toledo, OH) - Monday, October 15, 2007