Jean C. Jorgensen

Jean C. Jorgensen, 71 of Hurley, died suddenly on Thursday, August 22, 2019 at Pioneer Memorial Hospital, Viborg.  Celebration of Life services will be at 7:00pm Tuesday, August 27, 2019 at the Viborg Community Building with family present two hours before services.  Arrangements by Hofmeister Jones Funeral Home.

Jean was born November 15, 1947, in Viborg, South Dakota, to Orville and Vivian Johnke. She was one of six girls. She went to Hooker School through 8th grade; she graduated from Centerville High School. After high school, she married Leland (Lefty) and they began their life together.

That is only the introduction to Jean’s story. She filled her life story with so many chapters!

What is included here are moments, memories...only an attempt to show how much Jean meant to her family, and we know, to so many other people.

• The great big Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners with the whole family.
• How much Jean loved to bake, and how good she was at it.
• ..a family tradition for years.
• Jean’s sisters were everything to her; time with them was very important to her.
• Her Birthday Club friends...friends for life.
• If Jean saw something that needed to be done, she went ahead and did it. Like burning the ditches one year because she thought they were overgrown. Lefty was away from the farm at the time, and driving home, he saw smoke coming from their place. Speeding up the road, who else but Jean is standing in the driveway, calmly watching the inferno in the ditch in front of her. Later, after the Fire Department left, Jean came out of hiding in the kitchen, only to have Lefty grab her lighter from her, fire privileges taken away…
• Jean had 11 grandkids, and she loved them dearly. She loved to spoil them as well! She was a living example of the saying, “If Mom says no, go ask Grandma”.
• ..you know, those traffic circles? Well, Jean didn’t know them very well. In fact, she really couldn’t find her way out of one once she merged into it. More than one grandkid got a call from Jean, as she was driving, to tell her how to get out of the fix she had gotten herself into while trying to drive to visit them.
• Jean loved animals. Pretty much all animals. And they loved her back. They were drawn to her, as if they could sense her acceptance of them, no matter what.
• And her own puppies? More like, her own babies...special treats, home-made dog food...anything for her fur babies. She loved her dogs so much.
• Jean loved to drive her 4-wheeler around town, and other places on her trips. She spent a lot of time in Montana, with her sister, Chuck (Charlotte) and her family. Pictures of her on the back of a Harley, carrying the Montana flag in a parade...yes, that was Jean, all right.
• Jean was a very hard worker, and a very smart lady. Although college didn’t happen right after high school, she went back to school when her boys were older. She got training as a medical transcriptionist and loved what she did.
• She also worked in many other jobs, and quickly became an integral part of whatever business she worked at.
• She loved to read, to spend time with her sisters, to cook for her family and others, to travel, to attend her kids’ and grandkids’ sporting events throughout the years.
• She was strong. She came back from a near-fatal accident in 1984, and learned how to do life again, this time with a disability. And it didn’t hold her back.

Grateful for having shared her life are 4 sons, Jay (Sheila), Viborg, Jeff (Carol) Woodbury, MN, Cory (Loretta), Wakonda, SD, and Joel (Kathy), Harrisburg, SD; 5 sisters, Audrey Olson, Centerville, SD, Virginia Jorgensen, Lennox, SD, Constance (Leslie) Bartlett, Sioux Falls, Charlotte Lange, Davis, SD and Patricia (Kenneth) Blake, Madison, SD; and 11 grandchildren, Courtney (Cody) Johnson, Cody Jorgensen, Clay (Kelsey) Jorgensen, Keegan Jorgensen, Hayden Jorgensen, Landon Jorgensen, Jordan Jorgensen, Kylie Jorgensen, Brecken Jorgensen, Porter Jorgensen, and Landrie Jorgensen.

The most important thing Jean wrote into her story was love. We all knew Jean loved us. She told us and we told her. Please do the same...let the people in your life know, beyond any doubt, that they matter and they are loved. That is the greatest way to remember Jean.

Some notes from family:

• She would always let me have the chicken drumsticks when she fried the chicken, and she always ate the wings, because no one else wanted them...She was always protective of her family….She was always there for me, taking care of me and following dad and us kids around to sporting events...Her love of dogs…. A recent memory -- last Monday, taking Brecken and Porter to Angry Birds 2. Not loving the movie, but buying them popcorn, candy and toys at Wal Mart.  She just enjoyed spending time with them, watching them play sports, (being totally biased, of course). - Joel

• My memory about Grandma Jean is when ever I brought my friends over to come meet her, she always had some sort of baking done, or she would bake as we were there to give it to us. I really loved her baking. And so did my friends. - Kylie

• I got to go on a cruise last Fall to Alaska with Jean. I don’t know many people that would say they GOT to go on a trip with their mother-in-law, but I got to...I didn’t HAVE to. It was always easy for me to be with Jean. She never expected you to “be” a certain way...you were who you were with her. - Carol

• Whenever we’d be getting ready for a family gathering, not only did we enjoy getting the house ready together we especially enjoyed sharing a bottle of wine together before the festivities even began...Listening to Jean talk about her boys you knew she was so proud of them...She loved watching her grandkids play sports and would always chuckled when Joel would be “coaching” from the dugout/sidelines..it would bring back memories of how Lefty coached and she loved sharing those good times. - Kathy

• I just wanted to say that my favorite memories of grandma were always seeing how she interacted with Dad and his brothers. How she'd really give them a lot of crap sometimes, but it was all said with love. She really loved her family, but didn't always show it in the traditional sense. - Hayden

• I remember her laugh and how she always loved being with us. She dropped by our house or other places a few times right when we didn't expect her and it was great I remember going to her house on our yearly Christmas trip and it being so bright with warm light and all of our family together. I remember her riding in the motorcycle rally in Montana, just because she could. I remember how well she took care of her dogs, all of the different generations of them, how much she loved them and helped them. I remember how she loved seeing us anytime she got a chance to. I remember her caring and joking eyes looking at me when I was young. Grandma was adventurous and loving in all of my memories of her. - Landon

• I remember when Mom and Dad were out on vacation and Grandma was going to watch us for a couple days. When Grandma Jean came over I asked if there was anything I could help with to put dinner together and she said something like, “What? I’m not making dinner! We’re eating out!” I got a kick out of it, like she was more of a kid then I was. I also remember trying to play Bananagrams (a game) with her and her giving me some ridiculous words just so the game could be over. - Keegan

• Growing up as Jean and Lefty’s oldest son there were times when us kids could really push mom’s buttons. For Jean, being the only female in a house with 5 men presented some challenges,  which first and foremost, included training all the men in the house to lift the lid on the toilet seat before taking a leak and to make sure that once we were done to put the seat back down. I only remember a couple of times that this rule was broken and mom ended up with a wet bottom and punishment for this major infraction was evenly distributed to all; she made it very clear that if one of us was at fault, we were all to blame and it was up to us brothers to police each other to avoid her wrath in the future.
• My favorite memory of Mom was during my teenage years when I started getting into the habit of staying out a little past the curfew she had set for us. I was 16 and on a date with my future wife and what can I say, time got away from me.  Curfew was midnight and I turned off the lights to the car and coasted into the driveway at about 2AM.  Seeing the house was all dark I foolishly believed that I would be able to sneak back into the house with no one the wiser that I had gotten home a little late, except for the brothers which could be bribed or threatened to keep their mouths shut.  I quietly opened up the door without turning on any lights, removed my shoes and started toward the stairs to head to bed when a disembodied voice came out of the pitch dark room I was walking thru, asking, “Where the hell have you been?!!!”.  I just about fell down the stairs as a wraith in the image of my mother in her nightgown fell upon me.  “Don’t you know how to call, do you know how worried your father and I were, do you have any idea what was going thru our minds when you didn’t come home on time?  I sent your father out looking for you an hour and a half ago. Just wait until he gets home, oh and don’t be thinking that you aren’t going to get punished for this. You’re grounded for life and your car privileges are limited to going back and forth to your part time job and school.”  I was thoroughly cowed and beaten before she sent me to bed with the threat that Dad was going to be way worse on me when he got home so I had better prepare myself. Later that night, Dad poked his head in the door to my room and asked if Mom had ripped me a new one and I told him she had.  Dad just said, “Well I am sure that you have been scolded enough then, good night.”  The next morning, Mom was still fuming and finally got around to asking me why I was so late getting home.  I told her that I had been out on a date with this wonderful girl which immediately peaked Mom’s interest.  “What’s her name, how old is she, are you planning on seeing her again?”.  I told Mom that I had asked her out on a date for later that night to a street dance in Hurley and she had said yes but that I would have to call her and tell her the date was off , due to me being grounded for life.  I told Mom that it was probably all for the best because this girl likes to two step and polka and I never really had learned how to dance.  Mom’s ice cold heart she had towards me for coming in late the night before quickly melted as she instructed me to move furniture out of the way in our living room while telling me that no son of hers will ever sit on the sidelines because they didn’t know how to dance.  The next couple of hours she taught me how to two step and polka while dancing to Alabama’s Mountain Music.  She laughed about the weird face I made when she told me where to put my hand on her waist and how I repeatedly stepped on her feet and when we danced.  I finally told her that I needed to give Sheila a call to tell her that I couldn’t make it to the dance.  Mom just laughed again and said you must really like this girl if you were willing to allow your mother to teach you how to dance.  I just shrugged and Mom told me that it would be a shame to waste my dancing lessons and that she was willing to unground me for one night to go on a date with this unknown girl that she was quickly coming to like already.  I remember Mom giving me $10 to get into the dance and I asked what time she wanted me home.  She just said, “Not too late, ok?” I said, “Love ya Mom, and I won’t be too late tonight and thanks for teaching me to dance.”  She had a grin from ear to ear.  Later that night I pulled in late again but not too late -- Mom was waiting for me again with the light on this time.  Tapping her foot on the ground as I came through the door with my head down, she looked right at me and said, “Was it worth it?”  I shook my head in the affirmative and she just smiled and said, “Ok, tell me more about this girl that has my son so entranced that he would risk his mother’s wrath.”  I did and I will never forget that talk with her, she wasn’t mad at me any longer, she was happy and excited for me. Later on in life, I spoke with Dad about that night that Mom had sent him out looking for me and he told me the real story.  Mom was mad as hell that I was well past curfew and had told him to go out and look for me and that she would stay home and wait for me.  Dad had told her that I had probably met a girl and that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree when it came to watching the clock when you were with someone you liked.  Dad made it look like he had driven off to look for me but only made it down the road a short ways before pulling into a field approach to smoke a couple of cigarettes before falling asleep,  blissfully unconcerned about his son staying out late.  I guess I drove right by him on my way home while he slept. - Jay
• I remember Grandma and I just having nice chats while I was mowing her lawn, helping her around her house, and helping her out when I could. Love you, Grandma. - Cody
• - Mom was so easy to tease! (Something she passed on to me, by the way.) During one of the first few visits
  Carol, my then-girlfriend, had made to Mom and Dad’s house, she saw something odd. (You should know...our
  home being full of boys, sometimes things weren’t always….the “cleanest”. ) On an endtable, beside one of
  those soft, velvety chairs that were big in the ‘80s, there was a Kleenex box. Mom had written on the Kleenex
  box, “No whipping boggers!” Carol, coming from a family of all girls, didn’t really understand what she was
  reading, so she asked Mom about it. Mom explained that one or more her boys would frequently pick their
  nose(s) and...wipe..on the side of the chair, so she decided to write on the Kleenex box to stop the offensive
  behavior. Carol laughed and gently corrected mom on her spelling, sounding out what she had written rather
  than what she had meant to say. “Whipping boggers” was quite different from what she meant so say which
  was “No wiping boogers on the chair!” Mom was soo embarrassed but the fact was, everyone in the house
  knew what she meant and none of us knew enough to correct her spelling!
  Even after being corrected by Carol, Mom still found her to be a wonderful fit into our family. In fact, Mom and
  Dad both said that if I did not marry her they would give me up for adoption and adopt her in my place! As I can
  truthfully report, Carol was fully adopted, but they never gave up on me. BTW, all my boys can spell far better
  than I. Mom knew Carol would strengthen the bloodline! Love you mom! - Jeff

As you leave here today, we ask that you remember Jean well, and honor her memory by making precious memories with your own family and friends. We all knew Jean loved us. She told us and we told her. Please do the same...let the people in your life know, beyond any doubt, that they matter and they are loved. That is the greatest way to remember Jean.