Joan Ostergard

JoAn Louise Ostergard 64 of Gothenburg, Nebraska, left the confines of this earth on July 10, 2015 at Gothenburg Memorial Hospital. A funeral service will take place Friday, July 17, 2015 at 2:00 at the Gothenburg Methodist Church at 14th and Lake Street in Gothenburg with the Rev. Joel Plisek and the Rev. Karen Woo officiating. Viewing will take place on Thursday, July 16, from 1:00-7:00 with the family present from 5:00-7:00.

She was born at Lexington, Nebraska, on Sept. 28, 1950, joining siblings John Neil and Jane Marie, all children of Neil Edward and Barbara Jane (Morgan) Knapple of Lexington.

JoAn graduated from Lexington High School in 1968 and from Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska, with a Bachelor’s Degree in English Education graduating 10th in her class in 1972. She then attended graduate school at New Mexico State College in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

In 1970 she married D. Clark Jensen of Hastings, Nebraska. After meeting at Hastings College in Hastings, Nebraska, the couple married in Nebraska and then spent several years furthering their educations at New Mexico State College in Las Cruces, New Mexico. The couple later divorced while still in New Mexico.

While in New Mexico she met and later married, in 1976, Joe R. Reyes of Las Cruces, New Mexico. The couple later divorced and JoAn moved back to Lexington, Nebraska.

In 1982 she married Dennis A. Olson of Lexington, Nebraska, who later died as the result of a car accident in 1997, after 15 years of a strong, happy marriage at Lexington and Johnson Lake, Nebraska.

In 2003, after meeting on Match.com, she married Stephen J. Ostergard of Gothenburg, Nebraska, and moved to Gothenburg where the couple resided until her death. While living in New Mexico she was employed as an English teacher at Las Cruces New Mexico High School. After moving back to Nebraska, she worked as a dental assistant in Lexington, Nebraska, as a bartender at Andy’s Supper Club at Johnson Lake and as a truck dispatcher with her family at Knapple Incorporated Trucking at rural Lexington, and she was later employed as The Executive Director of the non-profit domestic violence agency The Parent-Child Center in Lexington, and a staff writer at the Lexington Clipper Herald.

After moving to Gothenburg, Nebraska, in 2003, she worked as church secretary for the Gothenburg First United Methodist Church. After many years at the church, she was later employed as executive secretary for Robin Hirsch of Hirsch Financial Services also in Gothenburg.

During her lifetime JoAn enjoyed singing in school, church and 4-H choirs, participating in various other 4-H projects as well as activities on the computer. She was a past member of the Buffalo Grove Presbyterian Church in rural Lexington and a current member of the Gothenburg First United Methodist Church, the church choir and the church Quilting Bible Study group. She was an avid bird watcher spending hours drinking coffee and watching birds out of the kitchen window with her husband Stephen in Gothenburg. She was also a strong Nebraska Cornhusker sports fan especially of Husker football.

In 2003 JoAn battled breast cancer and won, but in 2005 she was diagnosed with M.S. (Multiple Sclerosis) and again diagnosed again with cancer in 2014. She spent her final years fighting that cancer and raising funds for the National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Ostergard was preceded in death by her father Neil Edward Knapple, her husband Dennis Andrew Olson, her grandparents Edward Lewis and Hattie Belle Knapple, Joe and Stella Amanda Morgan and her parents-in-law Gage and Sara Jane Ostergard.

Survivors include her beloved husband Stephen Joseph Ostergard of Gothenburg, Nebraska, mother Barbara Jane (Morgan) Knapple, brother John Neil (Pam) Knapple all of Lexington, Nebraska, sister Jane Marie (Leonard) Mooney of Atlanta, Nebraska, and numerous other relatives and friends.

As per her wishes after her funeral, she choose cremation with a private inumment at Buffalo Grove Presbyterian Church Cemetery north west of Lexington, Nebraska.

Memorials are suggested to the Gothenburg First United Methodist Church at 14th and Lake Ave., Gothenburg, Nebraska, and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the family.