Address city, state: Clear Lake, Iowa
Phone: 641.357.3857 (H) / 563.357.0069 (C)
Marital Status / Partner’s Name: Married John Jacobs, August 27, 1967 and I am still married to the same wonderful guy.
Children / Grandchildren: Our daughter, Lisa Jayne was born in August 1970. She is married to Mike Ray and they have three children, Aaron, born in June 1997, Miranda, born in December 2002 ; and Jessica, born January 2004. Lisa and family live in Altoona, Iowa. Lisa is a Senior Systems Analyst for Principal Financial in Des Moines and her husband is a Technical Engineer for a company out of California, but works out of his home and travels frequently within the Midwest. Aaron is in 6th grade and involved in all sports activities, with baseball being his favorite. He also plays the saxophone in band. Miranda is in kindergarten and is quite the social butterfly. She plays soccer, T-Ball and basketball and is developing into quite a dancer. Jessica is the shy one of the three, but she tries playing soccer and BAM BAM and is started doing a little dancing.
Our son, Kevin Len was born in October 1972. He married his high school sweetheart, Amy Fish, and they have two children, Emma, born in September 1998 and Anna, born in June 2003. Kevin and family live in Fulton, Illinois. Kevin is the assistant manager for Spahn & Rose Lumber Company in DeWitt, Iowa, and Amy is an x-ray technician, specializing in mammograms and CTs. Emma is in 4th grade this year and is also involved in sports and wants her grandma and grandpa to buy her a horse. Anna started kindergarten this year as well and loves to play soccer and t-ball.
Work Experiences (past and/or present): My very first job was working for Dr. & Mrs. Preston, while I was in high school. I worked 40+ hours a week during the summer and duties included cleaning, doing dishes, fixing meals, laundry and ironing, canning and making jelly; all for the sum of $20 per week. After that, I worked at the Park Hotel until after my freshman year at NIACC, cleaning rooms and being a desk clerk. (you can read about this at the Clear Lake Remembered website under the Park Hotel). After completing one semester at UNI I started working at the UNI Library as a Bibliographic & Searching Clerk. I held that job, until John graduated from college and we moved to Clinton, Iowa in August 1969. My first job in Clinton was to work as a secretary to the pathologist at the hospital. My main responsibilities were to type the surgical reports, distribute lab test results to the doctors and total up all the daily lab charges. What made this job so interesting was the fact that I had no training in using a Dictaphone and did not know the medical terminology, plus the doctor was from the Philippines and had quite an accent. That made for some very interesting diagnosis. Of course, he did correct the mistakes before I typed up the final report. Once my children were in school full time, I decided to go back to school myself. I attended Clinton Community College full time and after two years, I graduated with honors with a degree in Electronic Engineering Technology. Following graduation I got a job working for General Electric, in the maintenance department. After two years, there was an opening for a Quality Information Equipment Technician, so I applied for it and settled into that position for 13 years. At that position I designed, built, programmed and maintained computer operated equipment that was used in the factory to test the product that was being produced. Since moving back to Clear Lake in 2001 I have been operating a Longarm Quilting Machine business out of my home. Most of my business is quilting for others but I also do custom quilt design and construction, repair old quilts and teach quilting classes. Not sure I will at this point in my life try anything different. Oh, the home we are living in is the house that my dad built and I grew up in. We have made some changes…like the house number. We were always 512, but that even numbered house was situated on the odd numbered side of the street. We always had to tell newcomers to the house that we were the even-numbered house on the odd side of the street. Dad tried numerous times to get it changed, but did not have any luck. I am not sure why we were successful, but we had the number changed to 517.
Other Comments (memories of school days / hobbies / favorite music / etc.):
I don’t think I will ever forget the day, in second grade at Lincoln School, the kindergarten teacher come to our room in hysterics to say that one of her students had just been run over. I can’t remember the name of the boy, but he lived down the street from us at the time. We had to stay at the school until our parents were notified so they could come to get us.
I think it was 3rd grade when we hid decorated Easter eggs in the classroom and one did not get found, until the smell gave the hiding place away.
They changed the school boundaries and in 4th grade I had to go to Central school, while Kirk Monson, who lived across the street, got to stay at Lincoln. That was a long way to walk especially in the winter. During recess I played marbles with the guys. I had some pretty awesome ones, since my dad was quite the marble player in his time and had quite a collection. Two of the 6th grade classes were held in the basement of the High School. I was in one of those classes and Mr. Olson was the teacher. Mr. Olson would use his paddle on everyone for their birthday. Bill Farnan and I shared the same birthday, so we were not going to tell Mr. Olson it was our birthday. Well, we both got the paddle that day and we each blamed each other for telling. We did not realize that the teachers had our records and knew when we had birthdays. Anyone remember the maps that we had to draw in ink on old sheets? My Junior High days were pretty much uneventful, except for getting ridiculed by one of the social studies teachers. I really don’t even remember much about the teachers we had there, but do remember the song “Guppies” that Mr. Koepke wrote and we named. I think I still have the record we made of the Jr. High Choir. My high school years were filled with band, clubs and of course, studying. I remember sitting in Mr. Stattleman’s classroom waiting to be dismissed to catch the bus to go to our classmate, Linda Ashland’s funeral, when Mr. Smith came over the P.A. system to announce that President Kennedy had been shot. We heard at the funeral that he had later died. On a happier note, I remember well, the year that the band got brand new uniforms and that same year, Linda Wilkins was crowned queen of the North Iowa Band Festival. How proud we were to march in the parade and also march on the field that night.
Besides my quilting, I also enjoy scrapbooking and am at the present time making Heritage Albums for our children. I have also spent a lot of time working on our family’s genealogy. It is so exciting when you find something that you did not know before.
I pretty much like to listen to the Golden Oldies, classical music, The Statler Brothers, and Kenny Rogers. My favorite Christmas song is “O Holy Night” and since I play in two handbell choirs, that is another favorite.
My biggest pet peeve is the crazy drivers on the roads these days. I would love to have a set of signs to show people when they are breaking the law while driving. I could go on and on about this subject…
