Gloria Jean Trudeau (Clark)

JEFFERSON, S.D. -- Gloria "Jean" Trudeau, 77, of Jefferson died Monday, Dec. 8, 2008, at a Sioux City hospital.

Services will be 10:30 a.m. Friday at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Jefferson, with the Rev. David Roehrich officiating. Burial will be in St. Peter's Cemetery. Visitation will be 4 to 8 p.m. today, with the family present 6 to 8 p.m. and a parish vigil service at 7 p.m., all at the church. Arrangements are under the direction of Berkemier Chapel, Christy-Smith Funeral Home in Sioux City. Condolences may be sent online to www.christysmith.com .

Jean was born Oct. 3, 1931, in Dixon, Neb., to Dale H. and Esther Ann (Winne) Clark. She grew up and attended school in both Nebraska and South Dakota. She graduated from Jefferson High School in 1948.

She married Robert Trudeau on Oct. 18, 1949, at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Jefferson. The couple made their home on a family acreage near Jefferson and raised three children there. The couple have lived in the area for nearly 60 years. She helped with the farm chores and raised exotic animals.

She loved to crochet, knit, make ceramics and do most crafts in general. She also was an avid gardener and canned lots of the fruits of her labor. She also loved to cook and bake and often made care packages that had a little bit of all of her loves for her friends and family.

She was a very caring person and always put everyone else first. One day back in the winter of 1978, she was listening to her CB radio at home and heard a call for help. She began talking to the two men on the radio. They had gotten stuck on a road just over the border into South Dakota. She began to ask more questions about where they were and found out that they had just crossed into South Dakota from Wyoming and that the two men were in a blizzard. She called the Sheriffs Department near where she thought the men were and stayed talking to them until help arrived. It was by chance that she had heard that call for help from so far away except that the two men were caught in that blizzard which some how allowed the signal to skip all across the state to her ears. She received a letter of commendation for her efforts to save those two men.

Her activities included golfing, bowling, politics and past president of the Rabbit Breeders Association of the Tri-State area. She loved to volunteer and do work for the Democratic Party. She worked on campaigns for both Governor Richard Kneip in his election and re-election and Senator George McGovern's run for the presidency.

She was an active member of St. Peter's Catholic Church and a member of the Altar Society.

Survivors include her husband, Robert "Bob" Trudeau of Jefferson; two sons, Tommy Trudeau of Greeley, Colo., and Wayne Trudeau and his wife, Lesa of North Sioux City; a daughter, Carol Felt of Pipestone, Minn.; a sister and her husband, Wilma and Lloyd Haney of Shawnee Mission, Kan.; two brothers and their wives, Franklin and Jean Ann Clark of Richardson, Texas, and Richard and Karen Clark of Yankton, S.D.; 13 grandchildren; seven great-grandchildren and one on the way; and many nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Dale Harvey and Esther Adella Clark; an infant son, Robin Trudeau; three sisters; and a brother.