Jean H. Steinhart | UNICEF volunteer, 89

Jean Harris Sterne Steinhart, 89, of Wyncote, a UNICEF volunteer for 40 years, died of ovarian cancer Thursday at her home.

Mrs. Steinhart was a homemaker in Melrose Park when she became a UNICEF volunteer in the 1960s. UNICEF's mission to assist impoverished children overseas was a cause she believed in, said her son, Charles Sterne III. The organization relies on donations from private groups and countries.

For 25 years, Mrs. Steinhart served as chairwoman of the five-county-area UNICEF greeting-card sales program and was a longtime member of the board of the Philadelphia Committee for UNICEF. Until she stopped driving in her early 80s, her son said, she distributed and collected UNICEF donation boxes in stores in the Jenkintown area.

Mrs. Steinhart graduated from Olney High School and from Wheaton College in Norton, Mass., where she served as class secretary until her 60th reunion.

She served on the Cheltenham school board, and was a member of Congregation Beth Or in Maple Glen and a supporter of Fellowship Farm, a center for human relations in Pottstown.

She enjoyed birding, walking along the Wissahickon, vacations in the Adirondacks, and genealogy. She discovered relatives in Germany who will meet U.S. relatives this month, her son said.

In addition to her son, Mrs. Steinhart is survived by a daughter, Wendy Coleman; stepchildren Robert Steinhart and Jill Anderson; a sister; a brother; and nine grandchildren. Her first husband, Charles Sterne Jr., died in 1968, and her second husband, Harvey C. Steinhart, died in 1994.

A memorial service will be at 11 a.m. today at Morris Arboretum, 100 E. Northwestern Ave.