Jean (Dainton) Muckel

"IN LOVING MEMORY"
JEAN (DAINTON) MUCKEL
DECEMBER 16, 1936-October 30, 2019

PSALM23:6 SURELY LOVE AND MERCY WILL FOLLOW ME ALL THE DAYS OF MY LIFE AND I WILL DWELL IN THE HOUSE OF THE LORD FOREVER.

Jean M. (Dainton) Muckel was born in Lincoln, NE on Dec. 16, 1936 and was adopted by Edna and William Dainton of Dorchester on Mother's Day in 1937. She spent the first few years of her life in Dorchester, NE where she began school. Her recollections of those years were of playing with the neighbor children and riding her rented ponies kept in their spacious back yard. Her father was manager of the Dorchester Co-op Elevator during these years. In 1943 her father purchased the Milford grain elevator and the family; mother, father and brother Jack, moved to Milford. During the summers she frequently attended Camp Kiwanis in Milford canoeing and swimming.
Jean participated in school activities which included theater and playing the saxophone in the school band. She became very proficient with the saxophone and frequently entered in music competition. She also took piano lessons. She always enjoyed her days attending Band Camp at the University of Nebraska . She apparently was always quite talkative as she and her friend, JoAnn Kuhns, were severely reprimanded for being too noisy during class. (Much later in life she found that the teacher who suspended her from school was the wife of one of Bob's cousins.)
She was always expected to work while growing up. During the summer she rode her bike passing out numbers to keep the harvest trucks in line as they arrived at the Dainton grain elevator. Later she helped keep their financial books---"and you keep going through the day's books until you account for each penny."

Weekends often included family get-togethers with aunts, uncles and cousins. Of course there was always church on Sunday followed by a roast beef dinner. Many trips were taken in the summers which included many to the Black Hills (and a free glass of water at Wall Drug). One trip was taken to New Mexico with aunts and uncles and one long drive to California in a car with six people in the car. A window cooler containing dry ice provided the air conditioning. Grandpa and Grandma Heeren enjoyed this trip very much.
Following high school graduation Jean attended Nebraska Wesleyan University where she studied education and music graduating in 1958. While in school she pledged the Phi Mu Sorority and she continued to maintain contact with her sorority sisters throughout her life.
She met Bob when the Crescent Fraternity serenaded the Phi Mu Sorority during one of his fraternities serenades. Jean and Bob were elected social chairmen of their fraternity/sorority and attended most of the social functions on the Wesleyan Campus. Bob never had any money and dining out usually included a tastee sandwich at "Tasty Inn and Out". (Always a good meal for less than a dollar!) It was a sad day when Jean (and Bob) found that their stomachs would no longer tolerate the tastee morsel.

Jean and Bob were married in 1958 in the Methodist Church in Milford and raised two wonderful children, Brett and Jacqueline. Brett has had a career of working in restaurants and Jacqueline entered elementary teaching. The family spent their first few years in Lincoln and Utica, NE. During those years the family had many interesting experiences when Bob had several National Science Foundation grants to study and do research with nationally prominent scientists. On one of these sojourns "Bob was driving on the right road, but he was traveling in the wrong direction". They moved to Emporia KS where Bob completed his Masters Degree and then on to Lindsborg, KS where Bob taught in the biology department at Bethany College for two years. Many of the weekends in Kansas involved college activities as well as traveling to early western cow towns and bird watching expeditions. They moved to Crete in 1968 where Bob taught at Doane College and Jean taught at District 87 and the Crete Public Schools.

Jean began teaching immediately after graduating from Wesleyan and eventually taught for a total of 35 years. She taught 1st and 5th grades and reading in Lincoln, Waco, District 87 in Saline County and Crete Public Schools. Jean's school day normally extended from 8:00 am to 6 pm. She cared about the children and received many accolades about her teaching from her students, parents and school administrators. She also saw that disadvantage children in her classroom had clothes to wear and a noon lunch. She continued with this by supporting the Crete BackPack Program.

Jean and Bob have many friends in Crete and loved the community. It was home!! Both Brett and Jacqueline graduated from Crete High School. They frequently attended parties and dances with their friends. After retiring from teaching Jean joined several bridge clubs and played golf at College Heights Country Club. She never let Bob forget her hole-in-one on hole number 3.
Family vacations were always a highlight for Jean. One of her favorite vacations was when the family stayed in a log cabin, "the house of the three bears", in Estes Park. The July snow there that year was truly beautiful. The Black Hills and Yellowstone Park were frequent vacation destinations, but her favorites were California, Hawaii and Jamaica.

She and Bob had two loving children who were always there to help and vacations were special family times . They had many delightful trips to visit Jacquie and her husband, Fred, in California . Their favorite destinations there were San Francisco, Monterey and Carmel. They also had many friends in Crete and enjoyed many trips with cousins, John and Kathy Palky, and their very special friends Dennis and Jody Isernahagen.

Jean enjoyed PEO, Wednesday Club, Beta Signa Phi Sorority and Phi Mu, but her greatest love was Grace United Methodist Church where she worked as an officer in several committees and sang in the choir and played in the bell choir. United Methodist Women and Circle activies in the church were a big part of her life.

Jean and family feel so blessed by the thoughtful and loving medical treatment they received at the Bryan Heart Center and the Crete Area Medical Center. Tammy Schroeder's medicine was always dispensed accompanied with love.

In 2015 Jean and Bob moved to Lincoln when keeping up their home in Crete became too difficult, but they continued their activities with Crete friends and organizations. Jean's love for her family was unlimited.

In lieu of flowers please send memorials to Crete United Methodist Church or the Crete BackPack Program.