John Wylie Jensen
John Wylie Jensen
John Wylie Jensen, 92, of Gooding died Friday,
December21, 2012 at the Boise VA Medical Community Living Center. Services will be held at 11:00 a.m., Saturday,
December 29, 2012, at the Alden-Waggoner Funeral Chapel in Boise. Graveside committal services will follow at
the Pioneer Cemetery in Horseshoe Bend.
A potluck dinner will be held at the Horseshoe Bend American Legion
Hall.
John was born on October 2, 1920, in the elevator of
Saint Luke’s Hospital in Boise to George and Mary Clarkson Jensen. He grew up on the family homestead in the
Jerusalem area near Horseshoe Bend. He
attended Jerusalem and Horseshoe Bend schools and graduated from Boise High
School. John and his brother Carl
traveled to Honolulu Hawaii and worked on Pearl Harbor's Red Hill Underground
Fuel Storage Facility. On a visit back
home, John was drafted into the US Navy.
He received basic training at the Farragut Naval Training Station in
Pend Oreille, Idaho, and was then stationed in Lawrence, Kansas where he met
and married Arlene Turner on February 27, 1944.
John served on the USS Wachaprague, a torpedo boat tender in the South
Pacific during the war and was awarded five bronze stars for his combat
service. After the war Johnny returned
home to log and mine with his family in Idaho and Montana. In 1961 Johnny and Arlene adopted their
daughter Jill and they spent the next two years in White Sulphur Springs
Montana. In 1963, they all moved to Hailey and later to Bellevue where he
briefly operated a Sinclair gas station, worked at the Minnie Moore Mine, and
finally worked for Sun Valley Company until his retirement. Johnny loved to work and always did a little
mining and welding, he was a superior mechanic and loved to work in the timber.
When the family went and got wood for the last time together, Johnny (88 at the
time) ran the saw and acted years and years younger.
He was a member of
the ski patrol at Roto Run in Hailey, where he taught his daughter to ski. Arlene preceded John in death in 1981. In 1984 John married Olga Waite and relocated
to Challis. At this time, John became a
member of the Idaho Old Time Fiddlers Association and joined Olga in hosting
their annual campout in Stanley Basin.
The campout was a joy to him and he spent many hours constructing and
then setting up his mobile dance floor/stage and figuring out ways to enhance
the musical camping experience. He was
honored by the Fiddler's Association in 2001 for his dedication and hard
work. Olga preceded him in death in 1997
and he subsequently moved to Gooding where he stayed busy everyday puttering
around in his "goodie pile"!
He helped form a new musical group - Fiddler's Inc. and helped with
their "Mannie's Jamboree" and Idaho Old-time Fiddler's State
Championship Contest. He remained in
Gooding until his move to the VA in September 2012.
John was preceded in death by his parents, his wife
Arlene and second wife Olga, his brothers, Vern, Donald, and Edgar Jensen, and
his sister, Margit Thompson. He is
survived by his brother Carl (Daisy) Jensen, and sister Elinor Carter, his
daughter and son-in-law, Jill and Eric Moore, his granddaughters Meghan
(Hector) Coronado, and Laurel Moore, and great-granddaughter Sofia Coronado,
special granddaughter Tawna Davis and her children, and many nieces and
nephews. Special thanks to Roxann
Jensen, his niece and Tawna Davis, and the VA CLC staff for their wonderful
care and kindness in Dad's last months.
In lieu of flowers the family gratefully suggests that
any donations be made to the Boise Veterans Administration Community Living
Center,
500 Fort Street, Boise,
ID 83702
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of John Wylie Jensen, please visit our flower store.
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