Mrs. Jean Van Zanten, age 96, of Orange City, passed away on Monday, September 23, 2013, at the Orange City Area Health System Hospital.
There will be a funeral service on Thursday, September 26, at 10:00am, at the First Reformed Church Chapel in Orange City. The Rev. Mark Haverdink will officiate. Interment will follow at the West Lawn Cemetery in Orange City.
Visitation will be after 4:00pm on Wednesday, with the family present from 5:00pm to 7:00pm, at the Oolman Funeral Home in Orange City.
Anna Jean was born on June 16, 1917, in rural Orange City, near Carnes, the daughter of Theodore “Ted” and Arta (Reekers) Heemstra. When she was six years old, her family moved to a farm by Middleburg. Later they moved to a farm at Alton, where she graduated from high school. She held various occupations, including secretary to Cornelius Vande Steeg, an attorney and mayor of Orange City.
On June 12, 1952, she married Richard William “Dick” Van Zanten in Orange City. They made their home in several communities, where he was a school teacher and later was employed by the United States government. In 1982, they moved to Sioux City, and they retired to Orange City in 1989. He passed away on February 17, 1995, in Orange City, after more than 42 years of marriage.
On July 9 of this year, Jean became a resident of the Heritage House Nursing Home in Orange City.
She was a member of the First Reformed Church, where she participated in the Mary-Martha Circle. She enjoyed singing as a soloist and was a member of women’s choruses. She also liked cooking and baking.
Survivors include her three children, Robert Van Zanten, of Orange City; Debra, and her husband, Michael Cleary, of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, and Donald Van Zanten, and his wife, Kristin, of Sioux City; four grandchildren, Sunshine, and her husband, Brian John, of McMinville, Oregon, Dustin Gnewuch, and his wife, Jamie, of Birch Bay, Washington, Shantel Gnewuch, of Seattle, Washington, and Michael Van Zanten, of Ames; five great-grandchildren; and three sisters, Elynor, and her husband, Jack Vander Wilt, of Orange City, Audrey Landegent, of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and Carole, and her husband, Don Kempema, of Grandville, Michigan.
In addition to her husband, she was preceded in death by a brother and his wife, Merlyn and Audrey Heemstra; and a brother-in-law, John Landegent.
