Sandra Gretchen Maw

Maw, Sandra Gretchen, 12/15/1933 – 02/11/2026, 92 years, of Edina, Minnesota, later, Cincinnati, Ohio, only child of Gretchen G. Jenson (Glasgow) and Howard A. Jenson (public school high school teacher, principal and superintendent of schools), died peacefully on February 11, 2026 in Cincinnati due to complications resulting from her long and extremely courageous battle with Alzheimer’s Disease and dementia, with her only child, Stephanie M. Booher (Maw) at her side.

Preceded in death by her parents and former husband, Ralph R. (Bob) Maw (divorced).

She is survived by her beloved daughter, her cherished son-in-law, William K. (Kevin) Booher, her dear cousins, Adair and David Soderholm and their families, the extended Booher family, the Maw family, and a lifetime of treasured friends, and former colleagues, students and real estate clients.

Born in Mahnomen, Minnesota, Sandra’s civic minded parents and local community leaders immersed Sandra in a world of optimism, love, community, learning, education and music. As a curious young intellectual, Sandra’s childhood was structured around her role as a Job’s Daughter, her academic and piano studies, her 4H Club Leader duties and her church community, for whom her mother was the organist in multiple churches until her retirement. Sandra graduated as valedictorian from Litchfield High School in 1951 (class of 121), with classmates she adored and maintained close friendships with until 2025.

Upon graduation, Sandra was offered a full academic scholarship to attend Carleton College, but due to family reasons, instead attended the University of Minnesota, (“UofM”) St. Cloud State University, known for their Teacher’s College, where she again graduated as class valedictorian in 1955 among her class of 854 students, was awarded multiple honors and scholarships, earned a Double Major in Mathematics and English, Minor in Education, further recognized and published in Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges 1954 – 1955. Graduating early, she first taught math at St. Cloud State’s Technical College and later earned her master’s degree in mathematics and education (her Ed degree missing thesis, she would self-disclose) from the UofM, Twin Cities Campus. Sandra enjoyed a diverse and rewarding teaching career, where she taught high school math at Thomas Edison High School in Minneapolis, Hopkins High School, Minnetonka High School, and enjoyed a long tenure with St. Louis Park High School, developing lifelong teacher friendships there. Sandra also taught business math at Hennepin Technical Community College, and college math including Differential Geometry, Algebraic Topology and Non-Euclidean/Modern Geometry at the UofM’s School of Mathematics. Sandra’s 60-year career from 1958 – 2018 was fueled by her lifelong interest in learning new things in what she perceived as a wonder-filled world, her desire to bring value to others, and by her unwavering dedication to creating a culturally rich, worldview and meaningful life for her daughter, Stephanie, as her full-time single parent and sole financial provider, resulting from her former husband’s inability to participate due to lifetime major health issues before his premature death.

As such, among others, Sandra’s career included work as a trust administrator, and when asked to jump into “this cool new computer thing”, she became an IBM Punchcard Data Processing Supervisor, both roles for First National Bank of Minneapolis (now U.S. Bank) from 1974 – 1980. Sandra then migrated to a residential real estate career with Edina Realty and Burnett Realty from 1980 until 2008 noting many of her repeat clients became personal friends. Never far from teaching, she also taught part-time roles while selling real estate. In 2008 Sandra officially returned to teaching, when recruited for a unique brand-new role, hired for the opening of the Melrose Institute’s (now Melrose Center, Park Nicollet Foundation) first academic tutor for in-patient program junior high and high school students, who needed extended in-patient multi-disciplinary medical care and/or hospitalization to treat their (often life-threatening) eating disorders, where she was honored to work until her retirement in 2018 at the age of 84. Beyond wearing her expected teacher and administrator hats, Sandra developed genuine relationships with psychologically fragile students and their families, as evidenced from her excitement in confidentially sharing classroom successes for her (unnamed) students during calls with her daughter, her employment performance reviews, and via many notes of thanks that remain among her mementos. She found creative ways using word and math puzzles, poetry and music to create less-stressful, clever educational exercises and assignments in hopes of connecting with students struggling to concentrate on their actual school work, gradually empowering them to find small successes and help regain self-esteem that often allowed the patient-students return to successfully meeting the requirements of their regular (often rigorous, advanced placement) school curricula within their actual school districts. In 2020, after Sandra and Stephanie worked together with multiple medical providers to test for and diagnose Sandra with early Alzheimer’s-like dementia. Sandra bravely agreed to leave her precious, independent and self-directed life to move and live with her daughter and son-in-law in their historic home in Covington, Kentucky, near Cincinnati. Here, she allowed Stephanie and Kevin to love and care for her for just under three years, further noteworthy that Kevin selflessly helped Stephanie care for Sandra as he was undergoing weekly chemotherapy treatments for his former cancer. In 2023, needing more/specialized care, Sandra moved to Ohio Living Llanfair in Cincinnati, Ohio, first to an assisted living apt, then to a memory care suite, where Sandra fiercely resisted allowing her brutal diseases define her, and negate her sociable and warm personality. By way of example, she regularly helped other residents needing more help than herself in her daily community activities and dining room, including cheerfully initiating one-way conversations with residents who, some experiencing final-disease-phases, were largely cathartic, making them smile and petting their hands, thus endlessly inspiring those who cared for and loved her until her death.

The family is grateful for the extremely difficult, intimate, physically demanding and selfless care Sandra received at Llanfair in both A/L and The Grove, especially from her nurses, nurse assistants, and activities team members, many of whom regularly expressed their love for Sandra upon first sight each day, and vice versa.

Outside of her work, Sandra was an accomplished classical, jazz standards and Broadway musicals pianist, who originally contemplated a music degree and hopeful career as an accompanist. Sandra’s much loved former husband, Bob, introduced her to modern jazz, which became a lifelong love for Sandra, investing much of her free time as a well-known local jazz regular in all of the Twin Cities live jazz clubs. Too many to name, Sandra especially revered the Phil Aaron Trio, Jay Epstein, Benny Weinback and Gordy (Gordon) Johnson, and later in Cincy, the Blue Wisp Jazz Band, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music’s jazz student performances and many others at Cincy’s Caffè Vivace, which she last enjoyed together with her daughter as recently as September 2025.

Sandra loved beauty – in people, music, art, theatre, literature and math equations, astronomy, technology, nature, and in her own presentation of herself which was flawlessly stylish and elegant. She enjoyed all kinds of travel, reading, ballroom dancing, family pets, speaking French, her Scandinavian and Scottish heritage, cooking for herself and others, eating out as a lifetime foodie (but not snob), college sports, Minnesota Twins baseball, and no matter the environment, she loved to have fun.

Sandra believed that all people hold equal value, championed the individual, the non-conformist and the outsider looking in, some of whom she called friends. Sandra religiously devoured her daily newspaper, the Mpls. Star & Tribune, the Sunday New York Times, the New Yorker magazine, their crossword puzzles, Minnesota Public Radio and Twin Cities Public Television, KBEM Jazz 88.5, history, government and politics, which she studied her entire life, filling notebooks with record-keeping and commentary of historic events, oft with self-assigned reading for herself, through early 2024. Sandra held sacred democracy and the rule of law, including exercising her right to vote.

In her personal life, Sandra strongly believed in honesty, sometimes difficult realities, facing hard truths about oneself and others, taking accountability and attempting to make amends when needed, and then moving on, the latter she worked hard to achieve, so as not to waste a single minute of this most magical life she so dearly loved and strove to consume each day.

Small donations are not expected but may be given to the Alzheimer’s Association, the Nature Conservancy or any non-profit organization of your choice.

The family heartily invites you to attend any or all of Sandra’s services and celebration, which will be held on Friday, May 15, 2026, at Sunset & Kapala-Glodek Funeral Home and Sunset Cemetery, 2250 St Anthony Boulevard NE, Minneapolis, MN 55418, with Visitation at 1:00 p.m., a joyful Memorial Service at 2:00 p.m., both in the Chapel, and a private inurnment at 3:00 p.m.

Immediately following, beginning at 4:00 p.m., a hosted Celebration of Life cocktail party (warm hors d’oeuvres, small plates) will be held at the historic Jax Café, a Jenson and Maw family favorite, The Cavelier Bar/Room upstairs (elevator on-site) located at: 1928 University Ave NE Minneapolis, MN 55418, Jax parking lot, a 12 min. drive from Sunset.

The family respectfully requests no flowers or gifts of any kind.