Obituary: Kathleen Jepson
Author: Kathleen Jepson Family
Kathleen Jepson
Kathleen Jepson Family
Stating many times over the last few months “there’s nothing going on around here” and “that’s just the way it is,” Kathleen Carol Brammer Jepson departed her earthly life on September 25, 2023, in Helena, MT at the age of 95 years.
Kathleen was born December 20, 1927, in Forsyth, MO to Florence Leona Young Brammer and George Zealand Brammer. She lived in a one-story wooden-frame house in Buffalo, MO as a child with her parents and her loving, close siblings - Betty Jo, Gale Zealand, Jerry Newton, Patti Mae and Barbara Rose. Some of her happiest childhood memories were going to her Grandmother Young’s home in Ozark MO during the summers. When she was 15 she got her first job as a telephone operator for $7 per week. She graduated from Green City High School in 1945.
On her first date with her future husband, John Newton Jepson took Kathleen to the circus and bought her a pin that said, “blondes preferred.” Kathleen married that quiet, handsome man, her high school sweetheart, on September 21, 1946, and together they raised 3 sons: John Jepson, Jr., Joe Jepson, and Jack Jepson. Her favorite memories as a couple were coming to Montana every year to visit her parents, attending family picnics, and raising their 3 sons together. Kathleen and John divorced in 1992.
Kathleen spent most of her working life as a Linotype operator, starting at her parents’ newspapers and later for the Townsend Star, a local newspaper in Broadwater County that she and her husband owned and operated for many years.
In her later years, she enjoyed traveling, serving as the “Queen Bee” of the local Red Hats chapter and spending time with her many friends and family. For many years, she traveled annually to Missouri to attend her high school’s all-class reunion - she enjoyed seeing old friends and reminiscing very much.
The family would like to thank Betty Mockel and Sharon Lewis for their faithful visits during her last two years at Silver Springs Assisted Living. Kathleen was a faithful member of the Townsend Methodist Church and enjoyed her church family and its activities for decades.
She is pre-deceased by her parents and all of her siblings except her devoted sister Barbara, and 3 grandchildren. In addition to her sister Barbara (Frank), Kathleen is survived by her sons - John (Bonnie), Joe (Lisa), and Jack (Heidi), as well as many grandchildren and great-grandchildren who will fondly remember her as ‘Grammy’ and ‘Gigi.’ She is also survived by many nieces and nephews whom she loved dearly.
Funeral services will be held at the United Methodist Church in Townsend, MT on Saturday, September 30, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. Her remains will be interred at Deep Creek Cemetery. Please visit https://www.stevensonwilke.com to offer a condolence to the family or to share a memory of Kathleen.
“I’d like the memory of me to be a happy one. I’d like to leave an afterglow of smiles when life is done. I’d like to leave an echo whispering softly down the ways, of happy times and laughing times and bright and sunny days. I’d like the tears of those who grieve, to dry before the sun, with happy memories that I leave when life is done.” — Carol Merkel
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