Obituaries

Teena Tanner Whalen of Ft. Thomas left to attend the heavenly flea market on Monday, May 6, 2024, after a seven-year battle with vascular dementia.

Teena was the wife of almost 40 years of Paul L. Whalen and the mother of three children: Ashley Tongret (Matthew Jent) of Covedale, Paul Lars Whalen (Christina Briggles) of Denver, and Lucy Whalen of Ft. Thomas. She also leaves behind two young granddaughters, Olly Jent and Meadow Whalen. In addition to being known as “Mom,” she was also known as “Teents” and “Teena-beena.”

Teena grew up in Florence on Tanners Lane, the daughter of Russ and Hazel Tanner. Like her father and her brother Terry, she had a feisty sense of humor and loved corny jokes. In the same vein, she loved New Yorker cartoons.

She graduated from Boone County High School, where she was a cheerleader. She loved to play sports, but in the years before Title IX, there were no girls’ teams for her to join. She also played the organ at Florence Christian Church.

She was a graduate of Morehead State University and had masters degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Morehead.

Upon graduation, she went to Lexington and worked as a P.E. teacher and coach at Sayre School. After marrying Rolland Tongret, she moved back to Northern Kentucky, where she worked for the state as a rehabilitation counselor.

After the birth of her first child, Ashley, and a divorce, she began teaching for Covington Independent Schools. Initially, she did programs at John G. Carlisle and Latonia Elementary. She eventually became the gym teacher at Ninth District Elementary, where she retired in 2008 after 30 years. After retirement, she was a near-constant substitute teacher at Grandview Elementary in Bellevue.

Upon her marriage to Paul Whalen, she began her adventures as a world traveler with a honeymoon to Britain. The following summer, she was chosen to teach at a simulated American high school in Brighton, England, preparing European exchange students for their stay in the U.S.

Teena enjoyed beach vacations with family and friends until her illness made them impossible. There were annual family vacations to Emerald Isle, North Carolina, when the kids were young, and later trips to South Haven, Michigan, with her daughters and girlfriends.

Paul and Teena enjoyed several long weekends in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia. During a trip to Bermuda with Paul, she saw Harvard’s bawdy, cross-dressing Hasty Pudding Theatricals. Seeing the Hasty Pudding show became a tradition when Ashley attended Harvard, and was a highlight of their almost annual pilgrimages back to Boston.

She took Lucy to England to visit Ashley at Cambridge, where one freezing morning they ran across cow pastures to watch Ashley row in a race on the Cam. She toured Italy, Vienna, Budapest, and Prague with Ashley; Vienna was her favorite, probably because of the Sachertorte.

She explored Peru and Machu Picchu with Paul and Lars, and supported Paul in 2016 as he hiked Hadrian’s Wall in northern England.

Teena loved to go junkin’ and had an amazing eye for discovering treasures. From April to October, Sunday mornings would find her at Burlington or Lawrenceburg antique markets. She was also an expert at scouring thrift stores and secondhand shops. Endlessly generous, she delighted in finding and passing along neat things that someone she liked would appreciate. After retirement, she created a cottage business of reselling her flea market finds on eBay.

As a mother, she was proud of her children’s academic accomplishments. All three of her children spent a summer abroad: Ashley in England, Lars in Senegal, and Lucy in Toronto’s City Hall. Additionally, all three have masters degrees.

She was a member of Highland United Methodist Church and Circle 13.

Funeral Services will be held Saturday, May 11, 2024, at Highland UMC in Ft Thomas. Visitation begins at 9:00 a.m. and Services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Reception will be 12:00 to 3:00 p.m. at Molly Malone’s in Covington. Burial will be at 5 p.m. at Battle Grove Cemetery in Cynthiana, Kentucky.

Memorials in remembrance of Teena can be made to Highland UMC, 314 N. Ft Thomas Avenue, Ft Thomas, Kentucky 41075.