On October 13, 1932 Jean entered the Thompson family as the second child born to Lucy and Russell, a struggling Oklahoma family just trying to make it thru the Great Depression. At that time, she had an older brother, Russell, and the family dog, Sandy. Later on, the family would eventually be enlarged by three more children, Bob, Judy, and Bill. (Only older brother Russell, and younger brother Bob, survive her to this day.) Even at the young age of five, she was busy working as a babysitter (for Bob), while Mom was doing chores. Jean grew up in the small central Oklahoma town of Shawnee where she had her first paying job as a "soda jerk" at the soda fountain in the local drug store. She was an expert at making the most delicious soda fountain drink of the day, the "root beer float" (a glass with a generous amount of ice cream swimming in a frosted pool of root beer). (When she came home from rehab recently, we celebrated by having a root beer float party, which she thoroughly enjoyed.)
On her passage to early adulthood, she met, and married, the love of her life, Richard C. Seale, a handicapped Korean War veteran just recovering from his disabling results of that conflict. They eventually had three boys, Gary, Don, and John. Richard worked in the electronics field, and over a fulfilling career of many years, managed to establish households across much of the US, from California to Alabama. Along the way, Jean earned a nursing degree, and enjoyed working in several hospitals in the central Oklahoma area. After their three boys left home in search of their own careers, Dick and Jean entered a dramatic new phase in their later years, by adopting and raising as their own, a very young grandchild named Janie. All told, Dick and Jean were thrilled to claim four children, six grandchildren, and multiple great grandchildren.
As if to celebrate the opening of the new century with the year 2000, a profound new adventure awaited Dick and Jean when they joined their Mom and Bob in Florida to build a multi-family retirement home where all family members could share in the support of each other as they mutually aged-in-place. This idea proved to be ideal for Jean in her later years, as the old nemesis of arthritis relentlessly restricted her mobility. But with the aid of family members, and her own heroic mastery of a new-fangled electric “scooter” for navigating around the house, she managed to regain much of her mobility and independence, which was an immense factor in supporting her satisfaction of self-reliance. This family co-op proved to be an extraordinary 21-year success story.
Jean had many interests. She loved to cook, and was quite accomplished in all forms of baking: cakes, pies, rolls, bread, cookies, Christmas cakes, candy, etc. One of her favorite hobbies was collecting cookbooks of all varieties, eventually amassing a considerable personal library. She loved watching old western movies on TV, and could probably name almost every cowboy movie that starred John Wayne. She liked to sew, and was quite good at it. She loved stuffed bears, and had a notable collection of them.
Jean left this earth on June 6, 2021, no doubt destined for a joyous family reunion with those preceding her. We celebrate the time we shared with her, and gratefully acknowledge her kind, loving, and generous nature.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18