Kathleen Kay Jensen
Kathleen “Kay” Jensen
Memorial services for Kathleen “Kay” Jensen were held at 4 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 8. Dave Fulkerson and Diane Spoklie were celebrants at the service at Fulkerson Memorial Chapel in Plentywood; Michael Nathe was usher. Cremation has taken place, with private interment of cremated remains at a later date. Kay, 87, died Tuesday evening, Dec. 4, at Sheridan Memorial Nursing Home in Plentywood.
Born at Outlook on June 29, 1925, Kay was the daughter of “Ole” and Onalee (Ladd) Garrick. Kay attended grade school in Outlook. The family moved to Los Angeles until her parent’s divorce when she was 10.
A child of the depression years, Kay and her brother Bryce traveled with their father, living in many towns in California while he sought work. She attended high school in Kalispell, and graduated from Plentywood High School in 1943. She worked in the Orpheum theater and as a telephone operator until she married Redstone native Jim Jensen on Oct. 29, 1943 in El Paso, Texas, where he was stationed in the Army Air Corps. After the war, they returned to Redstone where Kay was an active participant in the farming operation where they raised small grains and livestock.
In 1981, they retired to Bigfork. Kay was a volunteer at the Bigfork Art Gallery and Museum for over 25 years, was active in the Republican Women’s Club, served on the Board of Friends of the Library, and attended Bethany Lutheran Church.
Declining health brought them back to Plentywood to be near family.
Always outgoing and fun-loving, Kay’s bright smile and cheery disposition brightened the days of everyone she was near. In her years in Redstone and Plentywood, Kay was very active in many organizations, including Home Demonstration Club, Bowling, Eastern Star and Rainbow Girls, and was proud to have earned a private pilot’s license.
She and Jim flew often, and for many years kept a plane on the airstrip at their farm. Kay worked at Peterson’s Ready-To-Wear, enjoyed nice clothing and her well-furnished, comfortable (and meticulously neat and clean!) farm home they built in 1953. She and her broad circle of close friends enjoyed a wide range of music, from the big-band tunes through country and western.
Kay loved to dance. She met Jim at a dance at the Blue Moon, and they danced for hours and through their adventurous life of 69 years together. Kay was an excellent cook and owned every cooking gadget ever sold!
She loved to drive her red ‘75 Chevy convertible and later her Caddys as fast as she thought she could get away with. She constantly told funny stories, loved reading, especially Montana history, and travel. She and Jim spent nearly 30 winters in “their” RV park in Indio, Calif., and traveled extensively in their motor home. They knew the western U.S. well, and especially loved the desert. Always spirited and charismatic, Kay liked to entertain, and was a take-charge personality, always looking for the next adventure.
Kay is survived by her husband, Jim, at La Casa in Plentywood; her daughter, Susan Jensen and her husband George Sarantakis, of San Rafael, Calif.; her son, Rick, on the family farm at Redstone. She is also survived by three grandchildren: Jami Holton and her husband Russ; Clay Jensen and his wife Julie (Allen); and Taylor Jensen; and by three great-grandchildren: Aliyah, Avery, and Addy Holton. She also has one sister, Donna Kohler, of Raymond; a step-brother Dean Fladager and was preceded in death by her parents, by her brother, Bryce Garrick, who died on Dec. 2; and a sister, Carol Ann Jensen.
In lieu of flowers, Kay’s family suggests memorials to the Sheridan Memorial Health Care Foundation, the Alzheimer’s Association, or to the charity of the sender’s choice.
Fulkerson Funeral Home of Plentywood had charge of arrangements.