Jenny D. Adam

Jenny Dewedoff Adam, 92, died Sept. 8, 2025, at the Lutheran Community at Telford.

She was the wife of Walter Adam, who preceded her in death in 2023.

Jenny was born Eugenie Demidov on Oct. 28, 1932, in Baranow-Tschysna, Lithuania, the daughter of Lydia Birett and Gregor Demidov. Her father is believed to have died while Jenny was still a toddler. Her mother died when Jenny was 6, leaving her and her older brother in the care of their maternal grandparents, who were of German ancestry.

The start of World War II in 1939 meant years of displacement, fear, and trauma for many families in Lithuania. In 1945, 12-year-old Jenny became separated from her grandparents in the panic at the end of the war. She was captured by the advancing Russian soldiers and sent to a labor camp. The family, which had made it to safety in western Germany, sought news of her but heard nothing until 1948, when Jenny was able to escape from eastern Germany and they were reunited in Sprötze, West Germany.

She trained as a housekeeper and was working in a local business when her brother decided to emigrate to the United States. The grandparents insisted he take Jenny with him to start a new life in a new country. She later said that if she had known how seasick she would be on the voyage to New York, she would never have set foot on the ship.

They arrived in May 1952, and Jenny went to work as a housekeeper in Broomall for the family of Dr. Robert Waelder, a noted Jewish psychoanalyst who left Austria in 1938.

That same month, she met her future husband, Walter Adam, on the bus to English school in Ardmore. He would say he saw the shy, pretty girl at the back, and she noticed his dark, wavy hair. They married on July 2, 1955, at Tabor Lutheran Church in Philadelphia after Walter completed active service in the U.S. Army. From that time forward, they rarely spent a day apart until his death.

The couple started married life on Indiana Avenue in Philadelphia. Later, while living on Colgate Street, the family grew to three children. In 1965, they moved to West Walnut Street in Colmar, Hatfield Township. This was their dream home with space for a large garden where Jenny grew fruit and vegetables she canned in the basement on the old range saved from a kitchen remodel. Grapes from her vines and apples from the neighbor's tree were also preserved and often shared. She called her efforts a contribution to the family budget.

Money was tight, but there was always family time at the New Jersey shore and Pocono Mountains. Before the move to Colmar, there were weekends out of the city at a relative's cabin in the Church of God campground in Boyertown. She also hosted picnics on the West Walnut Street property where up to 100 family members and friends would gather. Her zucchini casserole was always a favorite at any pot luck.

She often spoke of her lack of formal education since it was interrupted by the war. But she would try her hand at anything. She was a seamstress who made clothes for the family — and her daughter's Barbie doll — and drapes for the windows. Jenny was an excellent home cook and hostess. Many holiday gatherings featured a beautifully laid table covered with a seasonal cloth she had embroidered. Christmas meant home-baked German cookies and cakes. Needlepoint, crocheting,  knitting, and quilting were all crafts she mastered. But there was also doctoring the family pets, painting walls, tiling kitchen and baths, and refinishing staircases and window frames among many other skills.

Jenny was a modern woman in a more traditional time. She earned and paid for her own wedding, learned to drive at a time when many of her peers did not, and went to work part-time outside the home when the children were older.

She and Walter were regular attendees at German club dances around Philadelphia. They began traveling in the 1970s to visit far-flung family and friends. This included trips to West Germany, Canada, and Australia, where her uncle had emigrated with his family after World War II. She also hosted those relatives when they came to visit in the United States.

The couple built a retirement home in 1996 on the lot behind the house on West Walnut Street and lived there until 2003, when they moved to Virginia to live with their daughter. When their health began to further limit their independence, she and Walter moved to the Lutheran Community at Telford in 2012. Jenny enjoyed sitting near a sunny window, where fellow residents often would stop for a chat.

She is survived by her daughter Edith Adam of Telford, sons Eric Adam (Janet) of Dallas, Pa., and Ronald Adam of Colmar, granddaughter Erica Adam, and great-grandson Gage Savage. In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by her brother Klaus Dewedoff and her granddaughter Kelsie Adam.

She would be happy for friends and family to bake a cake and have a cup of coffee in her memory.

Graveside services will be held privately in Washington Crossing National Cemetery, Newtown, and are under the direction of the Huff & Lakjer Funeral Home, Lansdale.