Jeannine M. Longjohn
July 15, 1930 – March 28, 2024
A memorial will be held at Zion Lutheran Church, 2122 Bronson Blvd., Kalamazoo, on Thursday, April 4, 2024 at 11:00 a.m. Visitation with family will start at 10:30 a.m. with a service at 11:00 a.m. and a luncheon to follow at Zion.
Obituary
Jeannine Longjohn passed away Wednesday, March 27, 2024, with her daughters at her side. She lived an incredibly full 93 years. She loved to travel and was an avid Disney fan. She loved her church, Zion Lutheran, and was an active member until her passing. She was involved in her children\'s school functions. She was known as the \"gingerbread\" lady and would make beautiful gingerbread houses for all the teachers and neighbors at Christmas. She loved to paint and was an accomplished artist. She also loved to sing and would sing at every opportunity and could turn any situation into a chance to make up a song. What will be most remembered about Jeannine was her capacity to love and make you feel loved. She loved with her whole heart and would never miss an opportunity to tell you what you meant to her. Jeannine Maude Sly was born in Boise, Idaho, on July 15, 1930, to Howard and Neva (Haynes) Sly. She moved to Kalamazoo with her mom, her sister, Ruth and brother Ed, to live with her grandparents after her father passed away. Jeannine graduated from Kalamazoo Central High in 1948. She was active in choir and was an accomplished artist. Jeannine married Gabriel Longjohn in 1948, when he returned from serving in WW2 and they welcomed seven children. She lived over 70 years on West Lake. She enjoyed painting, singing, Disney trips and spending time with her kids and grandkids. Jeannine was preceded in death by her husband, Gabriel;, her sons Mark, Brian, Keith and Bruce, and her grandson, Jordan. Surviving is her son, David (Cynthia) Longjohn, Susan Longjohn and Mary (Jeffrey) Jackson; many grandkids and great grand kids and great-great grand kids who she loved MORE, and would never let us forget it
I never had the pleasure of meeting my best friend’s grandma but I know how close they were and how much she meant to their whole family! My thoughts and prayers are with you all at this time. Sending all my love!
Rest In Peace Grandma, Thanks For Everything You’ve Done For Us U Will Not Be Forgotten Love U
Jeannine was the sweetest, kindest, most caring and loving person ever. Always smiling and loved having family and friends around. Brian, her youngest son, was the love of my life and if it weren’t for her, we would have never met. It was always fun listening to her reminisce about all the family trips and events from her 93 years of life. One of the most amazing ladies ever. She will be greatly missed.
Mary,I am so incredibly sorry. This is one special lady, I will always remember her amazing smile, and loving ways about her. You are all in my prayers.?
My grandma was the most wonderful and loving woman who has ever walked among us. A woman whose love and light shined so very bright that the world honestly will vibrate at a different frequency and just feel a little darker without her presence. If you knew my grandmother, you feel this too. Just one person literally made the entire world a better place. And her presence will be missed by so many. So it is now our job to love that much harder, be that much kinder, and be that more unconditional and unwavering in our love & kindness, so that we might be able to make up just a fraction of the essence that my grandmother was. To know her was to love her, and to be loved by her, was the greatest gift of all. She is the only person I can think of that fully embodied the actual teachings of Jesus Christ and everything he stood for. She was so very ahead of her time. She was the absolute most brilliant mind I ever knew and will ever know, and she could have been anything- yet what she wanted to be was the best wife, mother and grandmother she could be, and she was. The older I got, the more I realized the magnitude of the jackpot I hit having her as a grandma. And we were just so incredibly lucky to have her as long as we did- but there is absolutely no amount of time that could ever be enough. She could have lived to be 120, and it still would not have been enough. Every person deserves someone like her who loves selflessly and unconditionally. I believe we all come to this world with a higher purpose, and I know beyond a doubt that her purpose was to teach love, understanding and kindness to everyone she met. There is no possible way she could ever die, for she has taught us all the most valuable lesson we could ever learn in this lifetime and we will all carry that on. It is now up to all of us. Every day, we can try to live like Jeannine. When we are angry or frustrated, let’s think of what she would do or say. We can make the world a kinder, more beautiful place- a place in her memory. It’s up to us. There’s a line from a movie we all know, love and associate with grandma that says “A heart is not judged by how much you love, but how much you are loved by others” and I can say without a doubt that anyone who ever met her, loved her. We will make you proud grandma. We love you more and we always will ❤️ Until we meet again somewhere over the rainbow.
Before I say goodbye, I want to say Thank-you.. Thank you for being the best mom I could have asked for. For always sacrificing for your kids and making sure we came first. Thankyou for caring for us and loving us and letting us know how important we were to you. Thank-you for showing a young woman of 35 what strength was when you lost your husband, my dad, after 50 years of marriage. You had to continue in this life all alone for the first time in your life. Thank-you for helping me find that strength when I would lose my son and didn’t know if I had the strength to continue. You crawled into bed with me when I couldn’t get out of it. You cried with me and held my hand every step of the way. You didn’t leave my side even though you were grieving too. Thank-you for being my best friend and going on crazy adventures with me. We always had so much fun. Thank-you for Sunday dinners and family get togethers and Christmases that were magical. Thank-you for showing me unconditional love. No one in this world is as good and pure as you. You always said, I don’t know how I would have gotten through all this without you. Mom, I don’t know how I get through all this without you.