Elizabeth Jane “Janey” (O’Brien) Strub

STRUB, O’BRIEN, VAN TASSELL, GALLAGHER, FLAKE, HURST, SWANER, NORGAARD, FITZGIBBONS, DEMPSEY

Posted By: Tara (email)
Date: 5/12/2011 at 15:32:23

Elizabeth Jane “Janey” (O’Brien) Strub of Iowa City died Tuesday afternoon, May 10, 2011, at Mercy Hospital after battling a long illness.

Funeral Mass will be celebrated at 10:30am, Friday May 13, 2011 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church with Father John Spiegel officiating. Visitation will be held at Lensing Funeral and Cremation Service on Thursday, May 12 from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Burial will be at St. Joseph’s Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to Mercy Hospital Foundation or DVIP.

Janey is survived by her husband of 57 years, Carl F. “Bud” Strub, Jr. and her six children: Mary Jane Strub, Milford, PA; Carl F. “Trip” Strub III (Ellen), Iowa City; Sean O. Strub, New York City; Thomas J. Strub (Monica), Iowa City; Mary Gilbey Strub, London, England; and Mary Megan Strub (Len Van Tassell), Jersey City, NJ.

She is also survived by her brother, Dr. James O’Brien (Patricia), Dubuque; and six grandchildren: Lt. Kelsey Strub, USAF, Los Angeles, CA; Joseph Strub, Francis Strub and Sarah Strub, all of Iowa City and Henrik and Olivia Van Tassell, Jersey City, NJ. She was the beloved aunt of 30 nieces and nephews including the Gallagher, O’Brien, Flake, and Hurst families on Janey’s side and the Swaner, Norgaard, and Fitzgibbons families on Bud’s side. Janey was preceded in death by her parents, three sisters Margaret O”Brien Hurst, Kathleen O’Brien Gallagher and Mary Ellen O’Brien Flake, and infant grandson AJ.

Janey Strub was born in Ft. Dodge, Iowa on January 9, 1932, the youngest of five children. She was the daughter of James A. O’Brien, a prominent businessman in Ft. Dodge and Mary Eva Dempsey O’Brien originally of Van Horne. At the age of two during the depths of the Great Depression, she and her siblings were orphaned and she spent her earliest years in the care of the Sisters of Mercy in Cedar Rapids. She also attended Villa des Chantelles boarding school in Rock Island, IL as well as Sinsinawa boarding school in Sinsinawa, WI. Janey graduated from Iowa City High School in 1949 and went on to Barat College in Lake Forest, IL where she graduated in 1953 with a degree in education.

Janey and Bud were high school sweethearts and they began dating when Janey invited Bud to a Sadie Hawkins dance. Seven years later, they married on October 7, 1953 at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Iowa City. The focus of Janey’s active life was always her husband and extended family. When her children were young, she was widely known as the “Happy Witch” for her “magical” Halloween appearances at Lincoln Elementary School, Children’s Hospital and Sycamore Mall. She entertained the children dressed as a witch, but always, a happy, friendly one. Janey also worked at University Hospitals as a volunteer “patient” helping train medical students in the art of bedside manners. Over the years, the Strub household has always been a gathering place for children and adults alike with Janey’s openness and sense of whimsy filling the lives of those who knew her. She supported a number of charities particularly St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital, the local Cancer Society, the Domestic Violence Intervention Program and a variety of HIV/AIDS causes.

Janey was also a local fixture at Lake Okoboji taking the children to spend summers at the family cottage, which has been a Strub family tradition for more than 50 years. Those summer days on the lake were some of her favorite times.

In recent years, Janey and Bud spent several months a year on Marco Island, FL where they enjoyed a wide network of friends as they have done in Iowa City for more than six decades. Janey loved to travel especially to Ireland, home of the O’Brien clan, her pride and joy, and where she journeyed several times over the years. She was also a talented artist known for her whimsical drawings and paintings that she shared with family and many friends.

Janey Strub was an extraordinary woman of imagination and caring who always lived her life with a twinkle in her eye and who overcame a difficult childhood to become a beloved wife, mother, sister, aunt and friend to so many. She will be missed.