Jean D. Husby, a much-loved member of the Grand Marais community, died on Sunday, the fifth of October, 2014, at Hillhaven, surrounded by her family. She was 89 years old.
Born and raised in McIntosh, Minnesota, Jean Vaatveit was the youngest of four girls. She married Harold Husby in 1944, and they recently celebrated their 70th anniversary. Harold and Jean moved from western Minnesota to Kansas City, Missouri in 1950. She received a B.A. in Music from the University of Missouri at Kansas City in 1974.
In 1979 she and Harold moved from Kansas City to Grand Marais, and built a lovely home on Maple Hill, with a two-floor greenhouse that she filled with plants and flowers and was the focus of much of her life. She was a fine gardener and for years supplied “Jean’s greens” to restaurants in the area. She was also one of the Grand Marais “wildflower ladies,” contributing to a two-volume compendium entitled Wildflowers of Cook County, Minnesota.
Jean had wide-ranging interests and a broad circle of friends of all ages. She was an avid reader and an accomplished musician, fiber artist, and author. A needlepoint tapestry Jean worked on for nearly a decade was displayed at the Johnson Heritage Post (1998) and in the atrium of the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic in Grand Marais (2000). Her essays appeared in magazines such as Northern Gardener, Minnesota Horticulturalist, Natural Superior, and Women’s Times. She was most proud of two shortstory collections she published with Loonfeather Press, illustrated by her son Scott: Willow Water (2003) and A Return to Willow Water (2011). In the later years of her life, Jean was working on a biography of Fanny Mendelssohn.
She is survived by her husband, Harold, as well as her four children: Scott (Tracey Cullen) of Grand Marais, Timothy (Barbara) of Broomfield, Colorado, Carolyn Godfrey of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, and Peter (Martha) of Alameda, California. She also leaves seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
Memorial donations may be made to Hillhaven in Grand Marais.
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