Kellie Munger Kusserow

Kellie was born February 23, 1951 in San Bernardino to Ross and Jeanette Munger. She was a young pioneer in sports for girls. If there was a sports program, she was involved. Jeanette coached and Kellie played, mostly on weekends because there were no girls sports in schools. She was a Bluebird and then a Girl Scout after the family moved to Visalia. She was asked to join the Semi-Professional softball team, the Fresno Rockets, coached by Gerry Murphy when she was only 16 years old, and was by far the youngest member on the team. They traveled throughout the United States and were a force in softball throughout the states. Her father ran the Lemon Cove Market and she attended Mineral King, Mt. Whitney, COS, and Chico State. She was on the tennis team at Mt. Whitney, and was a cheerleader at Mt. Whitney and COS. At Chico State she studied education and worked her way through school at the Oasis restaurant. Upon graduation, she was hired into the Tulare City School District and taught second grade for 5 years and middle school PE at Cherry Avenue for 34 years. She was firm but fair, and taught her students much about living an honest life, being kind and doing the right thing. This was more important to her than winning or losing. She coached at least 62 different teams of many sports during her time at Cherry and she loved the middle school age students. On two occasions she took groups of middle school students to Europe. She gave young people the chance to experience great things through travel. Kellie traveled across the USA by car, and traveled to many foreign countries during her lifetime. Experiencing life was a specialty of hers. She also taught part time at COS for 18 years. She met a music teacher, Jim Kusserow and they were married for over 32 years. They raised three children Kaylan, Michael, and Christopher, and she was constantly transporting kids to baseball, soccer, basketball, dance and band events. She was the consummate team mom, always willing to help, coach, work, keep score, sell snacks, and do whatever it took to help the program and the team. She and Jim enjoyed traveling with the grandkids with their trailer, and golfing in Mexico, Hawaii, and especially the Indio area. She was especially active in the Cal Ripken baseball program, serving on the board, and working side by side with local legend Clyde Soto on many Saturday mornings on the fields. A highlight was traveling to Mattoon, Illinois in 2002 when her son Michael was on the Cal Ripken world championship team, defeating Korea in the title game, which was broadcast on FOX Sports TV. She never missed one of her kids’ events unless there were two at the same time! She also served on the board and donated hundreds of hours to the Miracle League Baseball Program for special needs people. Kellie retired from teaching in 2013 and began working part time for the County Office of Education making visits to schools. Everywhere she went, she met people who became her friends, and she was always ready and willing to help anyone that she knew that was in need. She performed many acts of kindness that she never spoke about or wanted praise for doing. She was a giving, humble, caring person and will be missed by all that knew her. Kellie was a member of Christ Lutheran Church for over 30 years. Kellie was preceded in death by her father Ross, mother Jeanette, and sister Terri. She is survived by her brother Mike (Karen), nephews Matt, Ryan and Morgan, sister Patti (Ed Adrian), nephew John, niece JaDawn and nephew Dylan Holler, (Terri and Manfred), husband Jim, daughter Kaylan (Chris) Anderson, sons Michael (Angelica) and Christopher, grandchildren Wyatt and Ava Anderson, and Emma and Caleb Kusserow, and many grand nieces and nephews. In lieu of flowers please support the Miracle League of Visalia, PO Box 7003 Visalia, CA 93290, the American Cancer Society, the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (pancan.org), or the charity of your choice. Services will be held at Neighborhood Church at 11:00 am September 4, 2021. Arrangements made by the Trident Society.