It is with a very heavy heart that we announce the passing of our beloved mother, sister and friend, Jean Carol (Dvorak) Horn, on July 14, 2024. Jean had been a resident of De Pere, Wisconsin since 1978.

Jean was born in Two Rivers, Wisconsin on December 31, 1937, to Alvin and Sylvia Dvorak. She was raised in Mishicot in the family home with her three sisters. In 1953, at the age of 17, she entered Bellin Memorial School of Nursing in Green Bay, and graduated in 1958. She then moved to Madison, where she was employed as a Registered Nurse at University Hospitals. While in Madison, she entered the University of Wisconsin to pursue a Bachelor of Science, while continuing to work part-time as nurse.

In 1964 she met Robert L. Horn, who was then pursuing his doctorate in English at UW Madison, and they married in August of that year. Robert and Jean had three children, Bobby, Tracy, and Andrew. She became a full-time mother after the birth of Bobby, her first child. Bobby passed into eternity unexpectedly in 1973 at the age of seven, when Jean was just 35, an event which marked her for the rest of her life. She was the model of a nurturing mother, dedicated to her children's happiness and development, in spite of her tremendous early loss. She also held the family together and managed the logistics through several major moves between the Midwest and the East Coast. She held a very strong and deep love for her children and her husband, and this love will never pass away.

As Robert progressed through his academic career and took on increasingly heavy duties as an administrator, Jean was his constant companion and support, attending and hosting numerous professional and social events at St. Norbert College and elsewhere. In addition to running the household and nurturing her three beloved children, she did volunteer work and engaged in a number of activities related to her children's school life. She was a volunteer for the Red Cross and Birthright, and also volunteered as an R.N. for the New Community Clinic in Green Bay. She was deeply spiritual and devoted to her Catholic faith. She sang in the choir at Old St. Joseph Church at St. Norbert College, where she actively served on the church renovation committee and participated in parish activities.

Jean had an energetic, enthusiastic spirit with a strong appreciation and curiosity for art, music, and the natural world. She enjoyed sharing her interests with her children and her friends. She was an active artist throughout her life, sketching and producing numerous works in watercolor. For her own enrichment and development, she enrolled in studio art courses as well as art history at St. Norbert. She also enjoyed visiting museums and galleries in the U.S. and abroad.

She appreciated gardening and spent a lot of solitary time nurturing her flowers and woodland garden. She enjoyed the outdoors, often taking walks with the family dogs, Lady and later Coco, and loved spending time in Door County with Bob (Robert) and the family. She loved discovering and visually recording new settings, environments and landscapes, such as Tucson, Arizona, where she and Bob spent their winters for fifteen years. She enjoyed travel, and was thrilled at the opportunity to make several European trips with Bob. They shared a particular affinity for Italy, which they passed on to their children. Finally, Jean enjoyed and appreciated music, having grown up in a household where music lessons and singing around the piano to her mother's accompaniment were common family activities. She loved attending symphony concerts and operatic performances, and was an avid listener of classical music, both on recording and on Wisconsin Public Radio.

Jean is perhaps best known by her family, friends and the wider community for her humble, graceful, loving and generous nature as well as her modest elegance and charm. She had a wonderful sense of humour and a laughter that radiated. She taught charity by example, and all who knew her felt her gentle touch. Jean is preceded in death by her oldest son Bobby and her husband Robert. She is survived by her son Andrew, her daughter Tracy, her granddaughter Stella, her sisters Doris, Eileen and Judy, in-laws and extended family.

A Mass celebrating Jean's life will be held at Old St. Joseph Church in De Pere at 10:00 AM on Tuesday, July 23. For those who wish to arrive early, an informal viewing will take place in the church atrium beginning at 9:00 that morning. Mass will be followed by a light brunch reception starting at 11:15 in the dining room of the Bemis Conference Center at St. Norbert College.