In Memory
Joyce Elaine Goodpaster Jensen
December 18, 1929 – March 11, 2025
I Love You, A Bushel and a Peck
A Bushel and a Peck, and a Hug Around the Neck
A Hug Around the Neck, and a Barrel and a Heap
A Barrel and a Heap, and I’m Talking in My Sleep
About You
Because I Love You, A Bushel and a Peck
You Bet Your Pretty Neck I Do
Yoo Hoo! Life is worth living, and boy was it a treat to.
Ninety-five years was not long enough. What a beautiful adventure.
At the start of the Great Depression, here I came, born in South Bend,
to Russell and Dorothy Goodpaster. My beloved sister Sue came along
a few years later, and we were as close as sisters can be.
The biggest surprise of our life was the birth of our baby sister, Janet “Janie”,
in 1943, when I was thirteen. She will always be my sweet baby sister.
My very best friend, from a very young age, was Joan “Jo Jo” Boudreau.
We did everything together. Even marry brothers!
That was my greatest adventure, meeting my beau,
Donald Duane Jensen, at Clark’s Soda Fountain.
Jo Jo had a crush on his brother, Richard “Dick”, and little
did we know back then the family and treasured memories
we would make together because of that sweet teenage girl crush.
Don and I were wed on October 1, 1949, and after seventy-one years
of loving each other and all the cherished time together,
he made his way to our Heavenly Father first, and has been waiting for me,
along with my beloved parents and sister Sue, my darling boy grandson Nicholas Drew,
wonderful son-in-law Michael, lovely niece Stacy, grandparents and countless
aunts and uncles who I have missed so much over the years,
my beauty Jo Jo and brother-in-law Dick (as well as Bud too),
and one very ornery and loved pup, Muffin “Muffy”. What a reunion to be had!
Over seventy-one years of marriage to my Don,
we had and joyfully raised two daughters, Gail and Gwen.
They are the greatest of us and brought so much happiness to our life.
We have so many nieces and nephews together, who made us laugh
and love and appreciate life that much more.
Our four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren made us feel like
kids again. Aren’t grandkids the best?
Nicholas, Elise, Betsey, Kyle, David, and Piper,
always know that Papa and Nana are with you and
watching everything you do. We’re so proud
of who you all are, and feel blessed beyond measure to be a part
of your lives. Don’t take any wooden nickels!
Don and I loved being together, and I cannot wait to laugh with him again,
for eternity.
Friends and family, I had the best years of my life, ups and downs as
they came, I’d do it all over again. Going to Epworth United Methodist Church,
riding my bicycle to Mishawaka as a kid to see my Grandma Tuttle,
watching my daughter Gail be a nurse and mother,
playing Bridge with my lady friends, working at my Daddy’s restaurant Russ’ Fine Foods,
road trips up to Wisconsin, getting my hair permed by Ruth Orfanos,
shopping at Dollar General with Sue,
living on Woodward and Adams Streets, phone calls with Gwen when she lived in Bloomington,
making Christmas morning casserole,
staying with Jo Jo and her family my senior year of high school,
going with Don to Marine Corps reunions, decorating for Christmas with my Santas,
holding my grandbabies for the first time…
All of it was precious to me,
and you all were a part of it. Thank you for the time of my life.
As my Frankie said, “May you live to be a hundred,
and may the last voice you hear be mine.”
If you would like to donate to Camp Millhouse in my honor,
I worked there for many years as their bookkeeper and can tell you,
it is a true magical place.
Camp Millhouse: 25600 Kelly Rd., South Bend, IN 46614
campmillhouse.org
Joyce’s family would like to thank Palmer-Welsheimer Chapel
and Highland Cemetery for helping with her final hoorah.
A private service celebrating Joyce was held already.
3/21/2025 djb
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