Jean Aiken Thompson
October 10, 1925 ~ May 6, 2020
Beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, Jean passed away on May 6,
2020, at age 94. She was born and grew up in Nyack, New York, where she met her
future husband during her school days. Her father taught her to swim in the Hudson
River and the Atlantic Ocean. She was an excellent swimmer and swam
competitively as a young girl. After graduating from Nyack High School, she went to
Mount Sinai School of Nursing in New York City as part of the Cadet Nurse Corps.
She graduated in 1947 as a Registered Nurse. While home on a school holiday in
Nyack, she ran into Bud Thompson who was home on leave from the Army Air
Corps. They married in 1947 and lived in a small trailer on the campus of
Springfield College in Massachusetts where Bud was attending school on the GI Bill.
Jean worked as a nurse until their sons Michael and Stephen were born. Following
graduation, the young family moved to Buffalo for Bud’s first job. Their daughter
Kathleen joined the family there. A job change took Bud to New York City, and the
family spent five happy years in Levittown on Long Island.
Fulfilling Bud’s dream of living in the west, he took a job with Martin Marietta and
they moved their family to Denver in 1961. In Denver, Jean worked several part
time jobs while raising her family and finally found her calling as the Activities
Director for Holly Heights Nursing Home. Jean showed her true colors in her
devotion to Bud by caring for him through thirty-three years of illness and disability
due to his Multiple Sclerosis. Throughout those long years of challenging
circumstances, she was the bedrock of our family, hosted many family gatherings
and was much loved and respected by all.
Jean made many good friends along the way, and kept in touch with them through
cards and letters. She had a special talent for writing, and her handwritten letters
were real treasures. Her love of books and reading started in childhood and
remained with her to the end. She loved the mountains and plains of her new home
in the west, but never stopped longing for the rivers and ocean of her childhood.
Bud preceded Jean in 1999. She is survived by her three children, Michael (Jean),
Stephen (Nancy), and Kathleen Kelly (Patrick) as well as seven grandchildren and
eleven great-grandchildren.
A private memorial will be held later this year.
Memorial donations may be made to:
Roundup Fellowship
3443 So. Galena St. Ste. 310
Denver, CO 80231-5079
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Such a strong loving lady! I keep reading this & thinking of all the years of knowing Jean. Mike, Steve, and Kathy you have certainly have been blessed by the love of a good Mother!!