Jansma, Clayton B. 1917-2001

JANSMA, WIERDA, BECKNER

Posted By: Wilma J. Vande Berg - volunteer (email)
Date: 6/10/2013 at 07:18:04

Clayton B. Jansma.

Clayton Bernard Jansma, 83, of Jefferson died Wednesday, May 30, at Greene County Medical Center in Jefferson. Services were June 2 at Brown Funeral Home in Jefferson with Pastor William Daylong officiating, Burial was in the Jefferson City Cemetery, The Jefferson American Legion conducted military rites.

Jansma, the son of George and Lillian (Wierda) Jansma, was born July 6, 1917, at Beaver Creek, Minnesota. His family moved to Sioux Center, where he attended and graduated from Sioux Center High School in 1935. He attended Central College in Pella. He married Illen (*Ellen?) Beckner at Guthrie Center on December 11,1937. He was called to duty as an officer in the U. S. Army in 1941 and served with the 34th Division in North Africa. After recovering from injuries received in Africa, he served with the Military Intelligence Division in Washington, D. C. Following his medical dis charge hi 1944, he returned to Jefferson and operated a paint store.

He operated several retail stores in Des Moines beginning in the late 1940s. The couple moved to California in 1959, where he worked as computer analyst for the U. S. Navy Supply Department, retiring in 1978. They moved back to Jefferson in 1999. He was a member of the Retiree Officers Association and the Jefferson American Legion Post. He loved music and had played professionally as a young man.

Survivors include his wife; daughter, Sharon and her husband Richard McQuillen, and a son-in-law, Marvin Ross, all of Jefferson; sisters-in-law, Charlene and her husband Rex Hawn of San Diego and Dorothy Beckner of Boone; brother in-law, Mike Beckner of Jefferson four grandchildren; five great-grandchildren; and four nieces. He was preceded in death by his daughter, Julie Ross.

Sioux Center News, Wednesday, July 04, 2001 Sioux Center, Iowa.