Jay Reece Willett

Passed away peacefully on December 30, 2010. He was preceded in death by his parents, Arthur Willett and Ann Reece; sisters, June & Lydia; brother, Phillip; son-in-law, Rick McCabe. Jay is survived by his wife, Virginia Jacobson; children, Vicki Ann, Michlyn (Bruno) Zagar, Jayne O'Connor, Martha McCabe and Dan; grandchildren, Chelsie, Erick, Tait, Dane and Allisun; sister, Lillian (LeRoy) Peterson; brothers, Charles Russell and John (Betty) Russell; and by his dear pets, Poppy & Pippin. Jay served as a United States Marine during WWII. He most recently worked at Ramsey County Mental Health Clinic. He was also a Master Gardener of Ramsey County. A Memorial Service will be held on Friday, April 29th at 11AM. There will be a gathering of family and friends 1 hour prior. All will be held at Sunset Funeral Home & Cemetery, 2250 St. Anthony Blvd. NE, Minneapolis, MN. Interment at Sunset will follow the service. In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred to: Heifer International, 1 World Avenue, Little Rock, AR, 72202. Jay was born in Superior Wisconsin on October 1, 1923, the second child of Ann Reece Willett (of England) and Arthur Willett. His father died when Jay was five, having had his lungs damaged by mustard gas while serving as a Canadian soldier in WWI and the family, now numbering 4 children, moved to Minneapolis. There were no safety nets for women with children back then, so two of the children were placed with Willett relatives in Wisconsin. Ann married again and there were three more children of that union. Jay delivered newspapers and ran errands, the most dreaded of which was to go to the grocery store and ask for free liver for the family to eat. He liked the liver, just didn’t like asking for it!

He attended South High through the tenth grade then went to work on a farm. Shortly after he turned 17 he enlisted in the Marine Corps with his mother’s permission. This was less than a month before Pearl Harbor and before he knew it he was spending more than four months in heavy combat on Guadalcanal. Following R & R in New Zealand he was in the Tarawa landing where he was shot three times in the neck and shoulder which made him a Disabled American Vet.

After discharge he and his buddy Finnegan hit the road looking for a college. They stopped for a beer in St Peter MN where the bartender told them there was a college up on the hill. Thus they attended Gustavis Adolphus. Later Jay graduated from Augsburg. He married Mary Snyder and they had five children. Earning a Master of Social Work degree from the University of Minnesota, he worked for the Minnesota Department of Corrections, Ramsey County Probation Office, United Way, and Ramsey County Mental Health Clinic until his retirement. In 1974 he married Virginia Jacobson. Following retirement he attended the U of M to become a Master Gardener. He loved digging in the dirt. He loved playing the Bagpipes in the Brian Boru Irish Pipe Band which he co-founded in 1960. But his greatest passion was sailing on Lake Superior. He took advanced sailing courses and could bring a 40 foot yacht into a slip under sail. Dementia began to take the wind out of his sails when he was 75. For the last year of his life he lived at Hometown Senior Living. At age 87 he got his yearly case of pneumonia but this time he did not recover. He died in forty one hours, sadly and surprisingly. Three of his children, two grandchildren and Virginia were with him. Many people loved him and it is hard to believe that he is really gone. He was a jovial, generous and happy soul, one to be really missed.