Jean Wang

Jean Wang, 89 of Webster died on Saturday, April 9, 2016 at Bethesda Home in Webster. Memorial services will be at 11:00 A.M. Thursday, April 14, 2016 at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Webster, Rev. William Olsen will officiate. Inurnment will be at Webster Cemetery. Memorial visitation will be one hour prior to services at the church on Thursday. Fiksdal Funeral Service of Webster is in charge of the arrangements. Fiksdalfuneral.com. Emelie Jean Wang was born on April 6, 1927 to John J. and Elvira (Peterson) Wang at Peabody Memorial Hospital in Webster, South Dakota. She was baptized and confirmed at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Webster. She grew up in Webster and attended school, graduating from Webster High School in 1946. After graduation she remained in Webster for over a year, during which time she worked mornings at Reporter and Farmer and afternoons at the Soil Conservation Office. In the fall of 1947 she enrolled at the Lutheran Bible Institute in Minneapolis and trained for Parish and Missionary work. From 1949 to 1953 she was a Parish Worker in Lutheran Churches in Velva, North Dakota and Long Beach, California. She then accepted a call from the Evangelical Lutheran Church to be a missionary in Japan. She was a missionary from 1953 to 1975, eighteen of those years were in Japan. In 1967 she graduated Sum Cum Laude with a Bachelor’s Degree from Augustana College in Sioux Falls, majoring in Religion and minoring in English Literature which were accomplished by furloughs from her Japan missionary work and taking courses in a school in Tokyo where she received a semester Japanese language credit. When she returned from Japan in 1975 she served as Church Staff Associate in her home church, St. John’s Lutheran, in Webster and as a part-time Lay Chaplaincy ministry at Bethesda Nursing Home in Webster for eight years. In 1982 she took a leave of absence from St. John’s and took an intensive Clinical Pastoral Education unit at Lutheran Social Service and Ebenezer Care Facilities in Minneapolis. After leaving Webster in 1983, She went on to be Church Staff Associate in Ministry to the Aging at St. Olaf Lutheran Church in Austin, Minnesota for five years, semi-retiring and moving to Watertown, South Dakota in 1989. In Watertown she served as Patient Visitor-Lay Chaplain at Prairie Lakes Health Care Center where she worked part-time for four years. She then fully retired in 1993 and returned to Webster where she lived with her older brother, Clarence “Bud” Wang. She entered Bethesda Home in Webster in April 2011. Jean passed away on Saturday, April 9, 2016 at Webster, South Dakota at the age of 89 years and 3 days. Survivors include one sister, Clara Acker of Jenkins Home, Watertown, SD; three nieces, Anita (Dick) Logan of Paynesville, MN, Linda (Danny) Johnson of Harrisburg, SD and Bonnie (Eric) Schafnitz of Brookings, SD; a nephew, Gary Wang of Sioux Falls, SD; and four grandnephews and two grandnieces. She was preceded in death by her parents, two brothers, Clarence “Bud” Wang and twin brother, E. John Wang and a nephew, Kevin Wang.