Born December 20, 1927, to Harold G. Kish and Matilda Wierda Kish near Ashton South Dakota, she graduated from High School in Sioux Falls South Dakota followed by nursing school at Sioux Falls Valley in 1948. She then moved to Denver and met and married Robert Watkins in 1949, They then moved to Boulder in 1952 and Jerene then worked as a nurse in the old Colorado Hospital, along with the Community Hospital, and Avista. She started volunteering with the American Red Cross in 1977 going national in 1982.
