Ruth L. Pearson

Ruth Lillian Venell Jensen Pearson, was born to Arthur and Susanna (Hanson) Venell, on March 9, 1921, on a farm near Shickley , Nebraska and died March 18, 2011. She was the youngest of five children. Ruth was baptized as an infant in the Shickley Methodist Church , and also confirmed in the Methodist Church . She was active in the Youth Group and sang in the choir. She attended eight grades of school in the country school, District #87, one mile south of the farm where she grew up. She attended Shickley High School , graduating in 1938. After graduation she worked in Lincoln , NE at a photographer's studio, working there two winters. She worked at a summer resort near Estes Park , CO two summers. In the fall of 1941 she went to Kansas City , MO and lived with her sister Moneta and her husband Elmer Swenson. WWII broke out shortly after she arrived in Kansas City , so she worked in the office of a Defense Plant for several years. In January 1945 she married Fred Jensen of Omaha , NE. Fred had returned to the US after almost three years over seas. He was in the Navy Seabees. They were married in Providence RI , at the Matthewson St. Methodist Church. They lived in Providence until the end of the war that fall. They then moved to Omaha , NE , Fred's home town, moving to Ralston , NE in 1947, where Ruth lived for the next 32 years. Two children were born to this union, a son in 1946 and a daughter in 1947. Ruth worked in the Ralston Public School System, doing secretarial work for 20 years. Ruth's husband, Fred died in 1971 at age 54, of cancer. On Nov. 24, 1978 Ruth married Emil Pearson of Davenport , NE. They had grown up on farms two miles apart, attending the same country school and High School. Their families were friends. Ruth and Emil were married in the Trinity Methodist Church in Ralston , NE. They then moved to the farm where Emil had always lived. They lived on the farm for six months while their new house was being built. Ruth joined Christ's Lutheran Church in Davenport in Feb. 1979. She became active in the Women's Group of the church, helping make quilts for Lutheran World Relief. She also was a member of Women's Club, Extension Club, a Bible Study Group and Book Club. Ruth loved to sew and made several quilts after she retired from her secretarial job. She is survived by her husband, Emil Pearson; son, Jan V. Jensen MD and wife Deborah of Kearney, NE; daughter, Suzanne (Jensen) Medlock and husband, Kevin of Pine Bluff, AR. Grandchildren: Teresa Medlock DVM of Pine Bluff, AR, Megan Jensen of Lincoln, and great-grandson Christopher Medlock of Pine Bluff, AR. Sisters, Maurine Zetterman of Shickley , NE and Katherine Nippert of Bruning , NE , and many nieces, nephews and friends. She was preceded in death by her husband, Fred Jensen, her parents, sisters Marian Venell and Moneta Swenson and grandson Mark Medlock.