- Date Of Birth: October 17, 1945
- Date Of Death: October 20, 2020
- State: Illinois
Sandra (Sandee) Jean Oswald of Oak Forest, Illinois, passed away peacefully on October 20, 2020. She had turned 75 years old on October 17. She was the beloved wife of James C. Oswald and loving mother of James B. Oswald Jr. also known as “Jimmy.”
Sandee, as she liked to be called, was born Sandra Jean Heinzl in Appleton, Wisconsin in 1945, daughter to Clifford Eugene Heinzl and Bernice Catherine Hove, and sister to her older brother, Jim. She is the last surviving Heinzl. Sandra grew up in a beautiful home on Lake Winnebago, Wisconsin where she and her family enjoyed outdoor recreation activities such as boating, water skiing, fishing, and hunting. In her final years of high school, Sandra and her family moved to a home on the banks of the Wolf River in Weyauwega, Wisconsin.
In 1964, while freshly out of the U.S. Army, James Curtis Oswald of Chicago, Illinois, visited Weyauwega with some buddies to do a little fishing. While in town, he met Sandra, and the two became smitten. James would visit Sandee multiple times in Weyauwega, continuing a long-distance dating relationship for months. James proposed to Sandra sometime during the summer of ’65, and presented her with a diamond ring that cost him $400 which, was a small fortune for a machinist back then! In October of that year, they married, and Sandee, a country girl, moved to the big city of Chicago where they lived in a tiny apartment on the city’s Southside.
In October of 1966, their first and only child, Jimmy, was born. A couple of years later, with a shared desire to get out of the crowded city, James and Sandra bought a house in a quiet suburban neighborhood called Fieldcrest located in Oak Forest, Illinois, and raised Jimmy there. Sandra and her husband enjoyed a quiet, simple life that included raising their son, maintaining and enjoying their home, day trips to the nearby wooded parks, and trips back to Weyauwega to visit Grandma and Grandpa Heinzl. During the summer months, the family enjoyed barbecuing anything and everything they could get their hands on and pulling out the lawn chairs to socialize with neighbors on their driveway!
In March of 1986, Jimmy joined the U.S. Air Force and moved away; Sandee and James continued living in Fieldcrest. In the Fall of 2003, James was diagnosed with lung cancer. He passed away in January of 2004. A few years later, Sandra began battling her own health issues including advanced dementia and Alzheimer’s, and diabetes.
Sandee was an attentive mother. She was also polite to others and generous. She will be remembered most for her big smiles, and for her contagious laughter that made others smile.
