1944-2022
Jene Curtis Everson, Vietnam Veteran, dairy farmer, storyteller, proud father, super mechanic, hand crusher and the loudest voice in any room died peacefully in his sleep at home in Rib Lake, on Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022 at age 78.
A funeral service for Jene was held at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022 at Hemer-Pickerign Funeral Home in Medford with grandson Jonathan Dircks officiating. Visitation was from 9 a.m. until the time of service at 11 a.m. at the funeral home. Military honors immediately followed the service and were provided by the State of Wisconsin Military Funeral Honors Team and American Legion Post 519. A luncheon was held at 1 p.m. at the VFW Hall in Westboro, featuring all of Jene’s favorite foods (read: sweets). Favorite stories about Jene were told in celebration of Jene’s favorite past-time.
Anyone who knew Jene, even a little, knew his booming voice, twinkling blue eyes, and infectious laugh could light up a room. He’d shake your hand, eyes glinting, while watching your face to see how hard he could squeeze before you called Uncle. (Mind you, he was attempting to break your bones with his non-dominant hand; Jene was a lefty.) The squeeze was just for fun though, a test of your humor more than your strength. Jene was a total softie who made everyone feel welcome, and would regale friends and strangers alike for hours with his many stories.
Besides, he couldn’t help that his handshake was so strong. Growing up in the Silvoy Hills of the Everson family dairy farm in Westboro, Jene was picking rock, baling hay, milking cows, and working on machinery practically as a toddler. He was rocking those Popeye biceps by age eight, and was 5’9” and 150 pounds by fifth grade. Even then, your handshake, to him, was just a tickle.
Born in Milwaukee on Sept. 18, 1944, Jene was so grateful for his childhood and life on the farm with a loving adoptive family; his mother, Eleanor Frances, father Vernard August and sister Mary Kathryn Everson. Through his family and their values, Jene grew up to be kind, empathetic, generous, affectionate, emotional, hard-working, independent, clever, funny and mischievous. And stubborn. So stubborn. Try telling this guy what to do, I dare you.
Jene excelled at hard work and quickly learned he had an uncanny knack for mechanics and engineering. In other words, he could fix anything. As a nine year old, he found and rebuilt a broken HAM radio, and was soon better than his father at fixing farm equipment and vehicles. As he grew older, Jene became the neighborhood farming community’s number one ‘phone a friend’ for mechanical help (Westboro’s version of ‘one call, that’s all’) and was still fielding calls to assist friends and neighbors as recently as last month. [The author advises any budding Westboro mechanics take advantage of the market gap.] In school, Jene enjoyed sports, mathematics and irritating his teachers. He was on the Varsity basketball team, and played first base for the Westboro baseball team, though he spent most of his time in high school trying to get to third base with the ladies. A quote written by a friend in his senior yearbook reads, “If Jene’s car’s a rockin’, don’t come a knockin’!”.
After Jene graduated from Westboro High School in 1962 and spent a year at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls studying Agriculture, Army life beckoned. His ASVAB test scores were off the chart for mechanical aptitude, and Jene quickly found himself enrolled in basic training at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, and then Fort Sill in Oklahoma. After basic, Jene was stationed at USAG Schweinfurt outside Wurzburg, Germany. While in Wurzburg, young love struck, and Jene married his first wife, Veronika Schaeffer, and welcomed his first born, Jene Frank into the world. Shortly thereafter, his second son, Jim Peter was born. The young family was only briefly together before Jene joined the 2-12th Infantry Battalion, 25th Infantry Division “Tropic Lightning” out of Schofield Barracks in Oahu, HI. Jene was then deployed to Camp Rainier in Dâu Tiêng, Vietnam in 1967 during the Tet Offensive. Here he served two years as Motor Pool Sergeant, leading a group of men through the hardship, challenge, pain, fear, and grief of war. Jene served in the Army for a total of nine years, from 1963-1972, and earned a Bronze Star and two Army Commendation medals for his meritorious service.
Jene’s time in the Army was perhaps the most formative experience of his life. As a loving and gentle person, the horrors of war were hard on his soul. He suffered hurtful memories, the scars from embedded shrapnel, PTSD and the effects of Agent Orange exposure for most of his life. Tears leaked from his eyes at the mention of the Army or his service until his last day. And yet, he was proud of his and his battalion’s sacrifice. Proud of what they gave and how they managed to prevail, to survive. What hurt him more than any physical pain or memories though was the cruel reception he and his fellow soldiers received when they finally returned home, broken and weary. Jene could never shake this, the idea that he gave so much of himself, and that his country rejected him. In recent years, more and more often strangers would approach him and thank him for his service, buy his meal, or give him a hug. This gave him immense relief and comfort, a balm for his pain. As his friends, family and community, the greatest way we can honor Jene is to offer thanks, gratitude, and a pat on the shoulder to the soldiers we encounter in life. Those baby blues will be shining up above like stars if we all can do that – for Jene.
After his service, Jene found himself back on the family farm in Westboro with his two boys, spending the days of the 1970’s-90’s in the fields, the barn or the machine shed, fixing one of the many pieces of equipment – Massey-Ferguson and Oliver tractors (don’t you dare mention John Deere in this family) Ford pick-me-up trucks, balers, choppers, combine harvesters or just the kitchen sink. It was then that Jene began building his own version of a Brady Bunch style family, marrying Peggy Carlson and adding daughters Cynthia Lee and Litzy Margot to his brood. In addition to working on the farm, Jene took a job as a mechanic at Van’s Equipment in Medford, and eventually purchased the family farm and homestead from his parents, thus beginning a new generation of Everson farmers that had been running the Silvoy Hills since 1848. This was a very proud time for Jene, owning his own business and growing his family. The children remember days spent on the tractor, making fence, feeding calves, picking rock, planting corn, playing with kittens, riding snowmobiles, ice skating on Fischer Creek – all alongside their loving Dad, who passed on to each of them a love of animals and nature, a commitment to hard work, a stubborn streak, a penchant for profanity and a weakness for vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup on top.
As time marches on, so does change. In 1990, at age 46, Jene finally met and married the great love of his life, JoAnne Couillard. Together, they built a beautifully complex, combined family large enough to roster two football teams, totaling 12 children, 33 grandchildren, and many great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. Jene and JoAnne’s lives revolved around their children and grandchildren; they were so proud of each and every one, and spent all their free time with their family. It was never, and isn’t today, ‘my family’ and ‘your family’ – it has always been ‘our family’. In each other, Jene and JoAnne found a deep and profound love. It was the stuff of dreams really, complete with pet nicknames (“Mother” and “Father”) and a n’er deviated from evening routine consisting of (heavily) buttered popcorn, Coca Cola on ice, NCIS and holding hands in their recliners. JoAnne even put up with hearing Jene’s many stories (raise your hand if you’ve heard the Colonel McGruder one) on repeat. Now THAT, that is true love.
After many years of farming, working, and parenting together, Jene and JoAnne were finally able to retire, selling their dairy farm to Jene’s son Jimmy, and moving to Rib Lake. In their retirement, they continued to spend time visiting their families; traveling all across central Wisconsin, to Minnesota and the Milwaukee area. They so enjoyed ‘going for a ride’ together, enjoying the fall colors, oldies on the radio, and leisurely stops for McDonald’s coffee or a Hot Ham n’ Cheese from Hardees. Life wasn’t perfect, but it was darn close.
Then in July 2012, when one couldn’t imagine their combined family could grow any bigger, a miracle of sorts happened. Through a little sleuthing, and a lot of magic, Jene found and was reunited with his birth parents, and learned he had four full siblings and three half siblings living in Milwaukee. He was able to meet his mother, father and four of his siblings, and has spent the past ten years making up for lost time with his brother Al and sister Betty. As he was wont to do, Jene shed many tears during the discovery of a whole other part of his family history, and over the course of the past ten years. Tears of joy, gratitude and overwhelming sentimentality for getting to live a life so full of love and family. As he whispered to JoAnne the night before he passed, “I am so very blessed.”
And so are we, to have known him. Jene was loud, he was boisterous. He said a lot of curse words. He was stronger than everyone in the room, and when his mind was made up, he was not to be messed with. But his heart was always right there, beating on his sleeve. If he loved you, you knew it, because he told you so. This is how I hope he will be remembered. Larger than life, with a heart of gold, and enough love to fill a silo. Jene Curtis Everson, your memory lives on forever, in all of us.
Jene is survived by his wife, JoAnne of Rib Lake; siblings, Al Brhley of Oconomowoc, Wis., Mary (Jim) Janko of Medford, Betty (Ed) Mehring of Big Bend, Wis.; children Jene Frank (Tomoko) Everson of National Harbor, Md., Jimmy (Tracy) Everson of Chelsea, Cynthia (Ben) Everson of Milwaukee, Litzy (Tyler) Lewis of Cedarburg, Wis., Bryon Dircks of Stanley, Joe (Jan) Dircks of Zim, Minn., Dan (Judy) Dircks of Eveleth, Minn., Pamela (Lynn) Dircks-Meacham of Willard, Wis., Sue Oberle of Gilman, Mike Dircks of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Deborah (Bob) Filipiak of Westboro, and Cheryl (Roger) Ogle of Medford; and 33 grandchildren. We lost count on the great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren. Jene was loved by many.
Jene was preceded in death by his parents, Vernard and Eleanor Everson, Augustine and Marie Brhley; brothers, Michael Connelly, Robert Brhley, John Brhley; nephew, Mark Janko; and an infant son, Matthew Everson.
In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to the Veteran’s Assistance Foundation, online at http://www.vafvets.org/donate/ or via mail: Veterans Assistance Foundation, 1118 Superior Ave., Tomah, WI 54660.
Paid Obituary 127870
