Juanita Harrison Stancliff was born on April 1, 1918, in Elmira, New York, to Mildred Ray Harrison Stancliff and Edwin Radeker Stancliff. She had an older sister, Ramona, and a younger brother, Elwood. In 1923 Edwin died, and Ray took the children to live in Los Angeles. Ray's parents William Cole Harrison and Mary Jane Lattner lived in an Eastlake-style house at 837 Lake Street in downtown Los Angeles (no longer there). Ray's sister Daisy and Daisy's husband Dwight Nicklin also lived in Los Angeles, and were like second parents to Juanita. Juanita never finished high school, because in 1931 Ray decided to take her daughters on a world tour by steamship. For two years they traveled, visiting Europe, North Africa, China, Japan, Southeast Asia and Polynesia. A better education could not be had! And on that trip Ramona found herself a husband (Miklos Dora), so Ray returned to the States with only one daughter in tow. Now a young lady, Juanita married her first husband William Merry, and along came her first child, Juan (b. April 11, 1941). This was an adventurous chapter in Juanita's life: she and husband Bill completed the 1939 TransPac Yacht Race, sailing in their 42-foot ketch
Viking Childe from San Francisco to Hawaii (and back!), without the aid of a radio and with the company of a Cocker spaniel named Chiquita. With her first husband out of the picture shortly thereafter, Juanita enjoyed the itinerant life for some years, making her home with young Juan on the Viking Childe and sailing between the coasts of California and Mexico, particularly Acapulco. In 1950 Juanita met handsome bachelor and World War II veteran John James "Jim" Kuhn of Mexico City, and they fell in love and married, then moved back States-side to Mill Valley, across the bay from San Francisco. Their first child, Claudine Therese, was born on April 6, 1951. Their second child, Ronald Laurence, came along on December 15, 1954. Juanita and Jim moved from California to Northern Virginia, and from there to Mexico City where they spent many happy years in the 1960s and early 70s. Moving back to the States yet again, they settled in Washington, DC. Juanita and Jim became devoted grandparents ("Pepsi" and "Grape"), after daughter Claudine met and married Mr. Chris of India in Washington in 1973-74, welcoming Alexander Devin to the family on November 14, 1979 and then Olivia Taylor on September 3, 1982. After "Papa" Jim passed away in August, 1992, "Granny" Juanita became an ever more important part of Claudine's family. She was a constant, nurturing presence, cooking, conversing, care-taking, and keeping the various branches of the Kuhn family in contact with one another. She passed away at the venerable age of 91, on December 17?, 2009.
