Jeanette Kolcinski, nee Schoener died at the age of 93 on April 28th, 2024. She grew up in Melrose and was a cheerleader in high school. She moved to Mpls as an adult and married Jim Kolcinski in 1953. They lived in Richfield and eventually settled in Edina to raise their family.
She was a talented clerk/typist who had a number of temp jobs, later working at the local high school til settling into her job at the Hennepin County library til she retired.
She learned to drive at 42 and used her newfound skill to cart us kids all around the city…as long as she didn’t have to drive on the highway… to bowling alleys, friends’ houses, softball fields, movies, pools, jobs, school events and innumerable garage sales. Besides teaching us the thrill of thrifting, she filled our home with books and the love of reading (although she was strictly non-fiction!) She taught me to cook so she wouldn’t have to, but always had time to do a puzzle or play Scrabble or Yahtzee. There was always a ‘CCO talk show or a top 40 station on her kitchen radio, cold baked potatoes in the fridge to snack on and drawers full of chips and candy bars. She loved traveling, plugging the slots or spending the day at the horse races. She was a night owl who spent her evenings after the news with a glass of white Zinfandel and a crossword puzzle while she watched Get Smart, Cheers or the Golden Girls. She hated anything to do with onions or the knives that cut them, bunnies who ate her flowers and the color orange.
Special thanks to the staff at The Pines Assisted Living in Richfield for making her last three years full of fun and friends and to the nurses at Southdale Hospital and the Little House Hospice for their sweet, compassionate, dignified care during the end of her life’s journey.
She was preceded in death by her parents Norbert and Rose, her five siblings Gene, Jim, Marjorie, Dick and John, their spouses, and her husband Jim. She’s survived by her children Steve Kolcinski and Jane (Brian) Hagen and her grandchildren Tanya and Corey (Reagan) Hagen and numerous nieces and nephews.
She would appreciate pink flowers or memorials directed to the Highland Friendship Club, Special Olympics of Minnesota or the Washburn Millerbots robotics team, organizations that were important to her grandkids.
Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at 11 AM at Christ the King Catholic Church, Minneapolis. Visitation will begin at 10 AM. Burial will be at Sunset Cemetery, Minneapolis.
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