Obituaries / LJWorld.com

Obituaries

W. Jeanne Swenson Solbach Meek, 86, died at the home of her daughter in Land O’ Lakes, Florida on February 5, 2013.
She was born on February 17, 1926 to Roy A. and Lydia Senn Swenson on their farm near Idana, KS. She attended King School near Idana and after age six, a country school two miles north of Morganville, KS, where the family moved in 1932. She attended high school at Morganville and received an associates degree from Lindenwood College in St. Charles, MO in 1945; after which, she taught in a one room school in Clay County,
KSI.n December 1945 in Clifton, KS, she married Melvin John Solbach when he returned from Europe after World War II; they later divorced. In Clay Center, KS, she married James Roy Meek in 1955. After his death in 1982, she married Albert Mandell in Nevada. She lived in Wichita, Abilene and Hope as well as Morganville, KS until retirement in 1981 when she and Roy made their home in Georgetown, CA.
She lost her eye-sight in 1985 and treated being blind as another adventure; she traveled the world to coin shows and on vacations. She testified before the California legislature on blindness, helped raise money in El Dorado County, CA for a blind center, and identified and involved the area’s reclusive blind.
In Kansas she had been a Girl Scout leader and a long time 4H leader, an accomplished prize–winning seamstress, and veterinary assistant while raising eight children to adulthood on the farm.
She is survived by three sons and two daughters: John M. Solbach (Patricia) of Lawrence, KS; Patrick D. Solbach (Jill) of Loma, CO; Michael S. Solbach (Carol) of Lyle, WA; Teresa B. Witt (Kim) of Sterling, KS; K. Anne McVey (Bill) of Land O’ Lakes, FL; and step-daughter, Neva Jean Schanefelt of Decatur, Ill. She is also survived by 19 grandchildren and 18 great grand-children. She was preceded in death by her parents, three husbands, her sister Dawn Lucretia Swenson, and three children: Phyllis Minter in 2002; James Phillip Meek in 1992; and Kelly A. Meek in 2009. She donated her body to the medical center in Gainesville, FL. The family will gather later in the summer to remember and celebrate her life. The family suggests memorial contributions to your local hospice.
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