Doreen Jensen

Doreen Jensen, 91, of Oshkosh, died Saturday afternoon, June 15, 2013 at the Garden County Health Services Nursing Home in Oshkosh.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m., Friday, June 21, 2013, at St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Oshkosh with Pastor Sarah Cordray officiating. Interment will follow at 1:30 p.m. in the Oshkosh City Cemetery.

Visitation will be held on Thursday from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. with the family present at the Holechek Funeral Home in Oshkosh.

A memorial has been established in Doreen’s name to the Garden County Nursing Home, the Oshkosh Public Library, and Volunteers of America.

Family and friends may sign the guest book and leave condolences online at www.holechekfuneralhomes.com.

Holechek Funeral Home in Oshkosh is serving the Jensen family.

Doreen Mary (Fisher) Jensen was born December 27, 1921, at a farm home north of Big Springs, NE, daughter of Van and Olive Fisher. Doreen had one sister, Irma Lou Wilcox, of Beaumont, Texas. Doreen went to country school in Deuel County before she was five, and later the teacher had her skip second grade, graduating high school at 16 as valedictorian. The Fishers moved to Blue Creek near Lewellen in 1938, during the Dust Bowl era. Doreen met Howard Jensen, who was manning the popcorn machine at the Silver Hill Theatre, as he worked for his parents, Oscar and Pearl Jensen.

Howard and Doreen dated all through college at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln where she graduated with a degree in teaching in 1942. Howard worked on his master’s and enlisted in the Navy. While Doreen was announcing her engagement to the other women in her university residence hall on December 7, 1941, the radio music stopped and the announcer blared: “Pearl Harbor bombed by Japan.”

Doreen and Howard were married January 2, 1943, at the Hartman house near Lewellen on Blue Creek. Howard was sent to the U.S. Naval Training Station in Bainbridge, Maryland. Doreen worked at the Red Cross running a linotype. On the weekends they went to New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington D.C., enjoying Broadway plays and orchestras. Howard was then sent to San Francisco and trained for duty on an LSM.

Son Rick (Richard) was born in 1945 when Howard was in Tokyo Bay. After the war, the Jensens returned to Lincoln where Howard finished his pharmacy degree. They moved to Lewellen just in time for the ’49 blizzard. They bought a farm near Oshkosh in 1950. Tim was born in 1951. The Jensens enjoyed hunting fossils and arrowheads and later collected antiques. They purchased the Silver Hill Theatre on December 11, 1955.

Doreen taught math in Lewellen and English at Garden County High School in Oshkosh until 1987. She earned her Master of Science degree in Mathematics in 1970. During her many years of teaching she was a favorite teacher for many of her students. After retiring, Doreen offered a writing class for adults that turned into a writing group that continues to meet. Doreen encouraged many members in their writing and several have published with her help. Doreen was a lifelong learner, always reading and often traveling with her sister and friends or attending theatrical productions.

Doreen is survived by sons and daughter-in-laws Richard, attorney, and Sue Jensen of Oshkosh and Dr. Tim and Jean Jensen of Lewellen; grandchildren Jill Amack of Oshkosh, Richard (Maria) Jensen of New York, Anna Hain (Andy) of Kearney, Van (Amy) Jensen of Atlanta, and Elisa (Jon) Jensen of Norfolk; and great-grandchildren Zuri Hain, Athena Jensen, Eli Jensen, and Blakelee Jensen.