Jean Marie (Kurth) Danen

Jean - wife, mother and grandmother passed away in her home in Richardson, Texas on December 21, 2023 at the age of 88. Jean was born on October 1, 1935 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Jean graduated from Regis High School in 1953, where she participated in orchestra, chorus, drama and cheerleading. She attended St. Scholastica College, where she graduated in 1957 with a degree in Home Economics. She taught Home Economics classes in high schools in Osseo and Schofield. During the summers, she worked as a camp counselor at the Lake Holcombe Girl Scout Camp.

On February 24 1962, she married Richard (Dick) Danen from Stetsonville, Wisconsin. Dick had been working in Saigon, Vietnam with Johnson, Drake & Piper. After Dick learned he was being assigned to work in southeast Asia with AIU (now AIG), Jean cancelled her teaching contract and two weeks later they married and started their adventures overseas. They honeymooned in Honolulu, and spent a month in Guam before moving to Manila, Philippines, and then Kuala Lumpur, Malaya (now Malaysia), where her children, Jim and Kim, were born. The family spent two years in Kuala Lumpur, two years in Bangkok, Thailand, three years in Beirut, Lebanon, and then seven years in Caracas, Venezuela, before buying their first home and settling in Richardson in 1977.

Jean enjoyed the travel and adventure of living abroad and studying new cultures and languages. In Bangkok, she sold Thai silk for Jimmy Thompson, and helped set up an office for Raytheon. She taught in both Beirut and Caracas. In Dallas, she worked in sales at Dallas Market Hall and Neha’s Crystal & China. She also an excellent golfer winning the Canyon Creek Club Championship seven times and the Texas State Senior Ladies Match Play Champion twice along with many other golf victories in local, State and the Women’s Southern Golf Association tournaments. She became nicknamed, the “Barefoot Golfing Grandma” after winning the Texas State Senior Tournament playing barefoot after accidentally locking her golf shoes in her car! She also loved to play tennis, bridge, and entertain, including their annual New Years’ Day Party with abundant food and Bloody Mary’s. But her biggest joy was traveling with Dick and her whole family, especially her four grandchildren – the joy of her life.

Jean is preceded in death by her husband, Dick, her parents, Oscar and Frances, brothers John and Steve, and sister, Kathryn. She is survived by her sister, Patricia Mountain, son James (“Jim”) Danen and his children Michael and Steven and daughter, Kim Meaders (Kurt) and their children, Christina and Matthew (and wife Megan).

Jean will be buried with her Husband at the Dallas National Cemetery. At Jean’s request, a “Toast to Jean” to celebrate Jean’s Life will be held at the family home in Richardson, Texas.