Jessie Neale Jensen (1913-2009)
JENSEN, NEALE, FREED, BALTZ, KEHOE, CURRAN
Posted By: Ames Tribune
Date: 5/19/2009 at 20:55:11
THE AMES TRIBUNE, Ames, Story County, Iowa, Tuesday, May 19, 2009.
Jessie Neale Jensen, 95, of Ballard Creek Assisted Living in Huxley, and formerly of Urbana, Ill., died Friday, May 15, 2009, at the Madrid Home in Madrid. A memorial service will be at a later date at Ballard Creek Community.
Mrs. Jensen was born Dec. 7, 1913, in Bealeton, Va., one of nine children of Wayland Dunnaway Neale and Mary Virginia Neale. She graduated from Westhampton College (now the University of Richmond) where, among many activities and honors, she was captain of the field hockey team, president of her sophomore class and a member of Mortar Board, a scholastic and leadership honorary society. After graduation, she taught high school in several Virginia communities.
In July 1942, she entered the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) as a member of the first officer-training class at Fort Des Moines, after which she worked as a recruiting officer, an escort officer and executive officer of the 79th Company at the second WAAC training center in Daytona Beach, Fla., ultimately attaining the rank of captain. While on a recruiting trip, she met her future husband, Mr. Jay W. Jensen, an Army intelligence officer, who later fought with the Sixth Infantry Division in the Pacific Theatre, and then served as a staff officer for General Douglas MacArthur. They were married, both in uniform, on March 19, 1943.
After the war, Mrs. Jensen settled with her husband in Urbana, Ill., where he was a professor of journalism from 1950 to 1981 and head of the Department of Journalism from 1957 to 1977. After her husband’s death in 1997, she moved to Iowa.
Mrs. Jensen is survived by her daughters, Jan Jensen, 64, of Saguache, Colo., and Julie Jensen Freed, 59, of Ames; as well as by her son-in-law, Richard Freed, 63, and her granddaughter, Sarah Freed, also of Ames. She is also survived by sisters, Mildred Baltz, of Hagerstown, Md., and Janice Kehoe, of Bealeton, Va.; and a brother, Harold Neale, also of Bealeton; as well as a brother-in-law and his wife, David and Kay Jensen, of Tucson, Ariz.; a niece, Mary Curran, of Earlham; and numerous other nieces and nephews.
Mrs. Jensen was a skilled gardener, an excellent cook, an avid collector of antiques, and a loving wife, mother and grandmother. She enjoyed bridge and was widely regarded as a gracious hostess and a loyal friend. She died as she lived, with faith, humility, quiet courage and gratitude.
Memorial contributions in Mrs. Jensen’s name may be made to the Fort Des Moines Museum and Education Center, 75 E. Army Post Road, Des Moines, IA, 50315, and to Ballard Creek Community, 908 N. Highway 69, Huxley, IA, 50124, where Mrs. Jensen enjoyed the last 12 years of her life embraced by a caring community of staff and volunteers.
Adams Funeral Home and Cremation Service is assisting with arrangements.
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