Marie K. Jensen, 76, of Brookings, formerly of Aurora, died Tuesday, April 10, 2018, at the United Living Community in Brooking.
Visitation is 5 -7 p.m. Friday at the Eidsness Funeral Home in Brookings. Funeral services are at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at the First English Lutheran Church in Aurora. Due to unforeseen, weather-related circumstances at the cemetery, burial will take place prior to funeral services, beginning at 9 a.m. at the Pioneer Lutheran Cemetery in White.
Eidsness Funeral Home is handling the arrangements. In Lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the First English Lutheran Church in Aurora, the American Heart Association, or the National Osteoporosis Foundation.
Marie Kathryn (Hinrichsen) Jensen was born Sept. 1, 1941, at Hendricks, Minnesota, to John and Gladys (Dearborn) Hinrichsen. She was baptized on Dec. 7, 1941, and confirmed on June 5, 1955, in the Lutheran Church.
Marie grew up on a farm in the Valley east of White, along with her five siblings. Over the years, the nieces and nephews have loved listening to the siblings’ many childhood farm memories and stories. She attended grade school and graduated from eighth grade at the Brookings County Valley School District 75 in 1957.
At about the age of 16 she began working as a caregiver for an elderly woman near Canby, Minnesota. On Sept. 6, 1959, she married Carol Paul Drietz of Ivanhoe, Minnesota, and they had one child, Diane Marie.
Carol was killed in a car accident in 1963. Marie married Kresten (Kran) Jensen of Aurora on June 23, 1969. They were married for 22 years when Kresten died in 1991. Through the years, she was employed at the Deubrook High School, Holiday Inn and the Brookview Manor. After suffering from a stroke and broken hip, she moved into Park Place Assisted Living in 2003 and in 2004, the United Retirement Center (currently the United Living Community) in Brookings where she lived until the time of her death.
Marie enjoyed dancing, music, fishing, jigsaw puzzles, playing cards and board games, but her ultimate joys were being a homemaker and spending time with her family.
She is survived by a daughter, Diane (Kevin) Kane of Woodland Park, Colorado; two grandsons; six great- grandchildren; a brother, Roy (Sharon) Hinrichsen of Wabash, Indiana; two sisters, Phyllis Coyle of Brookings and Karen Denison of Estelline, as well as numerous nieces and nephews
Marie was preceded in death by her husbands, Carol Paul Drietz and Kresten (Kran) Jensen; two sisters, Helen Graslie and Betty Skogen; and one niece, Sheryl (Graslie) Brown.
