JEANNE ANITA BUR-GESS

JEANNE ANITA BURGESS

     Jeanne Anita Burgess, 95, passed away peacefully at Pine View Care Center Jan. 19, 2024. Jeanne was born Feb. 20, 1928, in St. Paul, MN, to Roy and Anita Skooglun. She grew up in White Bear Lake, MN. Shortly after graduating high school, she worked at Kodak Camera doing some modeling (when Jeanne looked at some of her young pictures, she would say “I was a looker wasn’t I?”), then moving with her parents to Sausalito, CA, where her father worked at building construction and her mother welded in the shipyard. She then moved with her parents to Tower, MN, when they purchased the Birch Point Inn resort.

     She was united in marriage to William “Bill” Burgess Sept. 16, 1950. They operated the Birch Point Inn in Tower after purchasing it from Jeanne’s parents from 1961 until its sale in 1975. Jeanne had many passions. She loved hard work, people, was devoted to her family, loved nature, spending a lot of time outdoors, animals and singing. When she was a young girl, she would sing out of her bedroom window hoping to be discovered. After retiring from the resort, she found she had a love for gardening, singing in her church choir, painting, crafting and collecting nature’s beautiful gifts from the woods where she would hunt for moss, bark, nests and twigs. She enjoyed snowmobiling in the Boundary Waters, stopping for a lunch of toasted sandwiches and snowshoe grog over a fire to warm up before going on to the next lake.

     Jeanne was a very sweet person, always putting others before herself, never complaining because she knew she was blessed, and the grass was always greener on her side of the fence. She would rescue abandoned or injured birds, often being successful and never turned down a good game of bridge or cribbage. Jeanne loved to have her grandkids spend time with her out at the lake and as they grew up and married, always hoped to be around long enough to welcome some great grandkids into the world, which she did with Bentley and Kayla. She will be missed and remembered by her family and friends for all these good things and always her offering of “Can I help?”

     Jeanne is preceded in death by her husband, Bill; their Golden Retrievers; and her parents. Her daughters, Linda (David) Oreskovich and Anita Nevala (Greg Northrup); grandchildren Joshua (Jenny) Nevala and Annie (Lance) Dougherty; great-grandchildren, Bentley Nevala and Kayla Dougherty want to say “Thank you mom, grandma and great grandma.  You did good.”

     A celebration of life memorial service will be held in Tower, MN, at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be made to an animal cause of your choice, or a tree can be planted in Jeanne’s memory anywhere of your choice.

     The family wishes to give the Pine View Memory Care Center unit’s employees and the St Croix Hospice a special thank you for the care, patience and compassion they showed her during her end-of-life journey.

     Buswell Funeral Home is assisting the family with arrangements, Black River Falls, WI.