JACOBSEN, WILLIAM SEBASTIAN 01/15/1887 – 04/10/1955

JACOBSEN, TRAGER, MADSEN, SULLIVAN, CALENDAR, HAMMOND, SOENKSEN

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 5/4/2011 at 18:55:43

W. S. Jacobsen Rites Wednesday; Was Congressman, Civic Leader
William S. Jacobsen, 68, of 1005 N. 4th St., former U. S. Congressman and Clinton postmaster, died about 4 p. m. Sunday in Dubuque. He and his wife had been called there because of the death of her brother-in-law.
Friends may call beginning at 7:30 p. m. today at the Bragonier-Fay funeral home, where the body reposes. It will be taken at 9 a. m. Wednesday to St. John’s Episcopal church for services at 10 a. m. Rev. R. T. Dickerson will officiate. Burial will be in Springdale cemetery.
Although Mr. Jacobsen had been in poor health several years, his death came unexpectedly. Only a week ago funeral services were held for his mother, Mrs. B. M. Jacobsen.
A native of Clinton, he had been active in local civic, business and political life for many years. At the time of his death he was president of the Clinton Broadcasting corp., the Credit Bureau of Clinton and the Clinton Thrift Co.
Mr. Jacobsen managed the Jacobsen – Thompson department store 12 years. A prominent Democrat, he succeeded his father, the late B. M. Jacobsen, in the United States House of Representatives. He was elected from the second Iowa district to the 75th, 76th and 77th Congresses. He served on the House Naval Affairs committee during the Roosevelt administration and during the time that committee was recommending fortification of Pacific ocean islands before the outbreak of the war with Japan.
After leaving Congress, Mr. Jacobsen remained in Washington as Senate liaison administrator for the War Assets Administration.
Later Mr. Jacobsen returned to Clinton and resumed his place in the business affairs of the community. He was named acting Clinton postmaster Aug. 1, 1951 and served until January 1954.
Mr. Jacobsen was born Jan. 15, 1887, in Clinton, the son of Bernhard M. and Lena Trager Jacobsen. He attended Clinton public schools and business college as well as the normal college of the American Gymnastics Union at Indianapolis, Ind. He had been interested in youth work of the Y.M.C.A., the Turner Society and Boy Scouts. He was married to Miss Mae Madsen of Clinton, who died in 1920. He later married Miss Helen B. Sullivan of Fort Dodge.
She survives as well as two sons, Bernard M. Jacobsen, general manager of radio station KROS, and Maenard Jacobsen, who is in the insurance business. Also surviving are three sisters; Mrs. Alma Calendar, Clinton; Mrs. Alvina Hammond, Washington D. C., and Mrs. Bernice Soenksen, Harvey, Ill., and a brother, Marvin J. Jacobsen, Clinton.
During his active career, Mr. Jacobsen served as president of the Rotary club, of which he was a charter member and was past president, and active member of the Clinton Chamber of Commerce. He served as chairman in charge of the historic Clinton Boy Scout tour to Yellowstone Park in 1921 and took active part in the reunions of that group in later years. Mr. Jacobsen was a member of DeMolay Consistory and Kaaba Shrine, the Elks and Eagles; a 50-year member of the Clinton Turner society and a member of St. John’s Episcopal church.