Oliver Paul Tjossem

Sibley, IA Colonel Oliver Paul Tjossem, age 95 of Jackson, MS, formerly of Sibley, IA died Wednesday, February 20, 2013 at St. Catherines Village in Madison, MS. Funeral service will be 2:00 PM Saturday, March 2, 2013 at the Jurrens Funeral Home of Sibley, IA, with Rev. Shannon Pascual officiating. Burial will follow in the Holman Township Cemetery in Sibley, IA. with military honors by the George E. Mudge, American Legion Post No. 324 and the William F. Allard, VFW Post No. 7373. Visitation will be Friday, March 1, 2013 from 4 to 7 PM with family present at the Jurrens Funeral Home of Sibley. In lieu of flowers the family has requested contributions be made to your favorite charity. Colonel Oliver Paul Tjossem was born June 3, 1917 at Paullina, Iowa, the only child of the late Kinney and Emily Turner Tjossem. At the age of 10 years the family moved to Sibley, Iowa. He grew up in Sibley and graduated from Sibley High School with the class of 1936. Following graduation he worked in the retail oil business until the fall of 1941 when he entered the United States Army. He attended Officers Candidate School and in 1942 was commissioned a Second Lieutenant. He was in the European Theater from 1944 through 1945 and participated in five major campaigns from Normandy through the Battle of the Bulge. His thirty years of active duty resulted in numerous decorations for duty and valor in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. In addition to medals for valor from our government, two foreign governments also awarded him medals for valor " the Republic of China (Taiwan) and Vietnam. He retired from the military with the rank of Colonel. He was a resident of Jackson, Mississippi, a member of the Methodist Church, 32nd Degree Mason, member of Eastern Star, The Retired Officers Association, and past president of the North Jackson Kiwanis Club. He was a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha, Nebraska. He married Ruth Louise Trusty on December 13, 1941 and they had three children. Oliver is survived by his wife, Ruth, and two daughters, Marcy Wilkinson and her husband Charles L. Wilkinson, III of Grovetown, Georgia, and Susan Merrill and her husband Robert K. Merrill of Madison, Mississippi. He has four grandchildren, Elizabeth Harley and her husband Michael of Evans, Georgia, William Paul Kirkpatrick and his wife Sylvia of Leesburg, Virginia, Melissa Stewart and her husband Duane of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Catherine Wilkinson of Grovetown, Georgia, eight great grandchildren, his nephew James Stachour and wife Phyllis of Clinton, Iowa and niece Judy Braucht of Madison, Wisconsin. He was preceded in death by his parents; son, William Paul Tjossem and granddaughter, Allison Leigh Kirkpatrick.