Hazel Jean O'Connor
July 27, 1924 - September 30, 2022
Hazel Jean O’Connor
July 27, 1924 – September 30, 2022
Jean O’Connor loved red wine and vanilla ice cream, John Coltrane and Ella Fitzgerald, her thousands of books and her upright piano. She loved her children and grandchildren, friends, and caregivers. She loved her husband Jack and never got over his passing. Jean loved life and lived it well for 98 years.
She loved the arts and dabbled in many. She composed music and sang second soprano in trios and quartets. She painted, wrote poetry, and – when feeling naughty – limericks. In midlife, she channeled her talents into business as co-owner and chief salesperson for the PennySaver Want ad paper.
Jean was born in St. Thomas, North Dakota July 27, 1924. She met her future husband, Jack, at the one-room schoolhouse there. When he was 8 and she was 7, he declared he would marry her. Eighteen years later, he did.
Before marriage and during WWII, Jack served in the Navy, and Jean attended college at the University of North Dakota where she earned a B.A. in Psychology and Sociology. After graduation, she took a job in Chicago, but sadly, like her mother and sister before her, Jean developed tuberculosis. And, like her mother and sister, Jean eventually moved to Albuquerque, NM to take the cure in the high desert air. Jack and Jean remained in Albuquerque for the rest of their lives.
Jack, a.k.a. John Palmer O’Connor, preceded Jean in death, as did Jean’s beloved sister Margaret Grandy Clayburgh, and Jean’s parents, Hazel Johnson Grandy and Alfred W. Grandy.
Jean is survived by her daughter, Patricia (Trish) Jean O’Connor, Trish’s husband Jeff McConaughy and their daughter Kathryn McConaughy, and by her son Michael John O’Connor, his wife Staci O’Connor, and their daughter Haleigh O’Connor.
Jean will be interred with Jack at the Santa Fe National Cemetery. A celebration of life will be scheduled in the upcoming weeks. For more information about the celebration, email patrish60@yahoo.com.
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