- Date Of Birth: January 5, 1959
- Date Of Death: May 3, 2022
- State: Illinois
Nancy Lee Johnstone Jessen, 63 of Freeport was born to Frank Laurence and Marijane (nee Eckert) Johnstone in Evanston, IL on a January day many years ago.
She passed away on May 3, 2022 after a battle with lymphoma that lasted for many years. On July 16, 1977, she married her high school sweetheart, Timothy Jessen. Together, they raised three amazing children. Nancy envied people who were able to say where they were from, because she lived in so many places during her formative years. During her adult life, however, she truly settled in Freeport, Illinois where her husband practiced as analogist. Nancy lived by the belief that it wasn’t about what you looked like, did for a living, or how much money you had in the bank. Success is about character and what you do for others.
Always acting on that belief, Nancy was a caretaker, a giver of gifts, a supporter, and a champion of dreams for so, so many people. She always loved a celebration and adored planning elaborate events that made the world sparkle. Travel was another of Nancy’s greatest joys. She embraced adventures great and small, from summer days spent with family at their favorite lake house in Michigan, to going with Tim to doctor conferences around the country, to many romantic getaways to Jamaica, to her amazing journeys through Scotland, England, and Ireland. An enthusiastic, lifelong volunteer, Nancy devoted time to the March of Dimes, the Alzheimer’s Memory Walk, and therapy and rescue dogs at Carlson’s Canine Camp in Freeport.
She devoted endless hours to creating costumes and dressing sets at Winneshiek Theater, which became the site of one of her most significant volunteer projects. After taking over as the Program Director for the Winneshiek Children’s Theater in 2001, she worked alongside her dearest friend, Donna Cox-Rodriguez to offer a magical door into the world of theater for countless Freeport children. In 2017, one year short of the 20th anniversary of Children’s Theater, Nancy and Donna reluctantly stepped down from this passion project – each facing a cancer diagnosis.
The pair fought cancer side-by-side and laughed their way through their maladies until Donna lost her battle in August 2020. Nancy is survived by her devoted husband and their three children, April (Christopher) Boos of Freeport; Andrew (Amanda) Jessen of Milwaukee, Wis.; and Eric (Chrisonna) Jessen of Freeport; grandchildren Jameson Jessen and Alexandria Jessen, who brightened Nancy’s life. She also leaves behind beloved siblings, nieces, and nephews, as well as many bonus “kids” including Jordan Fye, Stephen Sporman and Brielle Strasser, and countless friends she adored – they know who they are.
Nancy was proceeded in death by her grandparents, parents, and her younger brother, Kent.
