Jean J. Nelson

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Category: Obituaries

Created on Thursday, 26 September 2013 12:16

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Jean Jordan Nelson, who taught at Sitka High School for many years, died Sept. 23 at the Pioneers Home. She was 97.
Jean was born March 4, 1916, in Lewistown, Mont. She graduated from Fergus County High School, attended Intermountain Union College in Helena, and graduated from the University of Montana, Missoula.
She taught school in Montana for five years and worked as a censor in Miami during World War II. She was hired to teach in Sitka and sailed north on the M/V North Sea in August 1945.
 She married Glen “Swede” Nelson in 1946 and they had two daughters, Marian and Patty Siegel.
Glen passed away in 1970.
Jean was a much-loved and respected teacher at Sitka High School for many years, teaching generations of students and worked hard to instill them with a love of the English language as well as Spanish.
A highlight of the Nelson family life was a drive they made into the Yukon in 1964 with their family dog, traveling by car, rail, and ferry.
Jean loved an adventure, and in 1977 traveled with a forester friend, Ken Holmes, on a 37’ sailboat they bought in the Virgin Islands and in which they crisscrossed the Atlantic Ocean. The S/V Odd Times was their home and Jean served as cook, navigator and crew for the three years they spent in the Pacific along with several months in the Indian Ocean.
They rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and “tied the knot,” in Charlotte Amalie on Nov. 14, 1984.
Jean later returned to Sitka, and has lived at the Sitka Pioneer Home since 2002.
Jean is survived by her daughters, Marian Stratton of Great Falls, Mont., and Pattie Siegel of Eugene, Ore.

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