Jeannie Kathleen French, 66, of Brookings, quietly died Sunday, July 1, 2018.
Funeral services are at 2 p.m. Tuesday at St. Thomas More Catholic Parish. Visitation is one hour prior to the services. Eidsness Funeral Home is handling the arrangements. Inurnment will be at Holy Cross Cemetery, Milwaukee at a later date.
Born in Milwaukee on May 22, 1952, she was the daughter of Wilma (Peschel) and John (Jack) French.
Jeannie graduated from Pius XI High School in 1970, received her bachelors of fine arts from
Whitewater and obtained her master’s of fine arts from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. She worked for the United States Postal Service and the US Migrant Offices until moving to Spearfish to be an art professor at Black Hills State University. There, she enjoyed riding her beloved horse, Prince.
She answered the call to move to White and then Brookings a few years later to teach art for 28 years at South Dakota State University. It was there that she obtained her master’s of science in counseling.
As a tenured professor, Jeannie taught ceramics, 3D design, drawing, and also served as a faculty advisor. She is nationally recognized for her decorative platters, conceptual ceramic sculptures, and pottery.
Jeannie adopted and reared her three sons, Nicholas, Jamison, and Jacob, in Brookings as a single mother. She loved every minute of every soccer game, Boy Scout meeting, band and orchestra concert. She was an active member of the Newman Center and St. Thomas More Parish. She enjoyed taking her sons camping in her camper at Oakwood and Lake Poinsett and riding her little red moped.
Jeannie is survived by her mother, Wilma French; children, Nicholas (23), Jamison (21), and Jacob (13) and a sister, Mary Beth Szymborski of Mequon, Wisconsin.
She was preceded in death by her father, John French.
