Jeanne Van Briesen

Jeanne Van Briesen, age 98 of Tucson, Arizona, passed away Friday, April 18, 2025 at Starfish Care Homes in Tucson, Arizona.

A funeral service will take place at 10:30 AM, Tuesday, April 29, 2025 at Tabernacle Baptist Church in George, Iowa with Pastor Bryan Anderson, officiating.  Visitation will be one hour prior to the service.

Funeral Service Livestream Link

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to Tabernacle Baptist Church or Heifer International.

Leona Jeanne Thiesse was born on the 19th of July, 1926 on the family farm near Little Rock, Iowa. The daughter of William and Hannah (Christians) Thiesse, Jeanne and her siblings, Donald, Lois and Dale were raised on a farm lit by kerosene lamps and supplied with water from the kitchen pump. The house was heated mostly by the kitchen stove fueled by corn cobs. They used chamber pots at night and the outhouse by day. The fields that were plowed by teams of horses are now worked by tractors with covered cabs and wi-fi connections. They walked to a one-room country school about a mile down the road.

Jeanne graduated from Little Rock High School in May of 1943. She was the last survivor of her class of 10. She attended Mankato Commercial College for a year and after attending a War Training Course in Des Moines, Iowa, Jeanne was employed by Wright Airforce Base in Dayton, Ohio. She and 18 other young women shared an estate mansion that a patriotic family had given up as part of the war effort.

Jeanne and Frank E. Boyd III were married in 1949 and divorced shortly thereafter. She worked at the Sibley Cement Plant to support her two young daughters, Barbara and Chris, and in 1961 married a high school acquaintance, Harry Van Briesen, who also had a young daughter, Vicky.

Harry’s wanderlust moved the family first to a farm in Rushmore Minnesota, then houses in Worthington Minnesota, and Burnsville Minnesota. Finally in 1972 when all three girls were married or in college, Jeanne and Harry relocated to Rogers, Arkansas. Jeanne and Harry divorced but Jeanne remained in Arkansas for 26 years. It was there that she found her favorite and last job in 45+ years of working outside the home: Financial Secretary for the large Springdale Baptist Church. She said that working there changed her life.

After retirement, Jeanne moved back to Little Rock Iowa where she could devote herself fulltime to her many other interests: sewing, counted cross stich, gardening, reading, Bible study, but perhaps most especially genealogy. She made the leap from her manual Underwood typewriter to a personal computer and was able to document relatives back as far as the 1600’s in Germany. She filled 3 bookcases with binders of family history information.

Jeanne singled out 1980 as one of her most memorable years. She made a deeply affecting trip to Israel and also was able to travel to help after the birth of her 2 granddaughters, Brianna in April and Johanna in December.

Jeanne saw many changes in a life that spanned nearly a full century. Eighteen presidents served during her lifetime and she lived through the Great Depression and World War II.

Transportation during her childhood consisted of driving a horse and buggy. As an adult she was comfortable with international flights and driving all over the country to visit family.

Her fierce independence, work ethic, faith, generosity of spirit, and interest in other people have been truly inspirational.

On April 18, 2025, Leona Jeanne (Thiesse) Van Briesen slipped peacefully away, having never fully recovered from a fall on April 12th in Tucson Arizona.

At age 98, Jeanne leaves behind her two daughters: Barbara Harmon (Robert) and Chris Holloway (Robert); 6 grandchildren: Adam Henderson, Brianna Henderson, Matthew Fransen, Natasha Beranek, Charles Harmon (Becky Guderian), and Johanna Harmon (Matt Kolsky); and 4 great-grandchildren: Halle Henderson, Lucas Henderson, Griffin Kolsky and Liana Kolsky.

Jeanne was preceded in death by her parents, three siblings and a step-daughter.