Jerrilyn ‘Jeri’ Jergenson, 75, St. Cloud

April 25, 1949 - March 2, 2025

Jerrilyn Charmaine Jergenson was born on April 25, 1949 in Sleepy Eye, MN, to Everett and Alpha Olson – the youngest of 5 children. She attended country school near Godahl, MN, and graduated from the St. James High School. She attended 2 years at Golden Valley Lutheran College in Golden Valley, MN, where she met her future husband, Al Jergenson. While he went on to attend Dunwoody Industrial Institute, she worked as a waitress at the original Sears Building on Lake Street in Minneapolis, and when Al graduated from Dunwoody, they got married on August 5, 1972, and moved to Eagle Lake, MN and then to Mankato, where they lived for the next 17 years.

In the Fall of 1988, Jeri and Al moved their family to Princeton, NJ, where Al attended seminary, and Jeri worked on the childcare staff at the Carnegie Daycare Center there. In 1991, Al graduated from seminary, and accepted a call to pastoral ministry at the First Presbyterian Church of Foley, MN. During their years in Foley, Jeri served as a Deacon in the Presbyterian church for a few years, and following graduation from a Home Health training course at the St. Cloud Vocational Technical College, worked as a Home Health Aide for Horizon Home Health, serving the elderly and homebound in the Foley, Princeton, Pease and Sauk Rapids area. She loved her work, and especially the clients she felt blessed to serve.

In 2017, Al retired, and Jeri and Al bought a home in Saint Cloud, where their son, Doug, lived and worked, and he bought a house next door to them a few years later. They were also blessed to have their daughter Tessa live with them for 5 years before her untimely death in 2022.

Jeri is survived by her husband, Al, of St. Cloud, son Douglas, of St. Cloud, sisters Linda Olson (Thief River Falls) and Jean (Paul) Gurman, Fairfax, VA; brothers Doug (Dawn) Olson, Spooner, WI and Lance (Kathy) Olson, Spirit Lake, IA, and many other relatives – both “in-laws” and “outlaws.”

She is preceded in death by her parents Everett & Alpha Olson; parents-in-law Conrad & Marjorie Jergenson, and daughter Tessa Marie Jergenson.

Memorial gifts may be directed to the “Foley Area CARE Program”, which works to coordinate volunteers who help elderly members of the community to be able to live in their own homes longer through a wide variety of forms of assistance.