Jan. 12, 1950 – Sept. 22, 2024
Jeanette Hope Stangland (née McBride) passed away unexpectedly at Aurora BayCare Medical Center in Green Bay, on Sept. 22, 2024. Jeanette was born in Minneapolis on Jan. 12, 1950, to parents Gene Allen McBride and Eunice Areta McBride (née Longenecker). The daughter of missionaries, she spent part of her youth in the field of Portuguese Guinea (now Guinea-Bissau), West Africa, before returning to the US to finish middle and high school in Mountain Lake, Minnesota. During that time, she was raised and cared for by her second family, her aunt Mary (Gerhard Lowell) Fast (née Longenecker), and her children, “brother” Gerhard Allen, and “sisters” Lenita, Twyla, and Margaret.
After high school, Jeanette attended three-year Diploma training at Mounds Midway School of Nursing in St. Paul to become a registered nurse and subsequently had a long career, first in the hospital environment, later in infectious control, cardiac rehab, and finally in the long-term care setting. Jeanette eventually retired in 2014 after several decades as a Director of Nursing (DON) for long-term care facilities in Portage, Waunakee, and Middleton in Wisconsin, with the last being in Sturgeon Bay. During her time as DON, she was a member of the State DON council and served as its president for two years exhibiting the compassion and commitment she felt toward the appropriate care of those who are vulnerable and in need. After retirement, she served as a nationwide consultant for long-term care facilities in need of DON guidance.
She entered into marriage on August 21, 1970, to Reverend Gary Bernard Stangland and was married for over 50 years. As part of that partnership in the church, Gary and Jeanette served parishes in Nevada, North Dakota — the state that saw the birth of their two sons Eric and Jason — Montana, and finally Wisconsin. Her role often took the form of music, and as a talented piano and organ player she provided music to Gary’s services with the occasional unintended consequence of “unsupervised” young children alone in a front pew with nothing better to do than throw Cheerios at their father during his sermon. She gave back some of her piano talent in form of lessons to young people.
Outside of work and the church, she juggled raising two sons in the home — often choosing to work night shifts early in life to remain home with the children during the day — and her prolific ability at craft working, enjoying all manner of crafts with special attention to sewing and counted cross-stitch, selling her wares at craft events and eventually her own Etsy page, DJCreations. She was working on a cross-stitch Santa the day of her passing. Later in life, she travelled with Gary after his retirement and was often seen in the presence of her Shih Tzu companions Baxter and later Kit.
Jeanette was preceded in death by her parents, but is survived by Gary Stangland of Sturgeon Bay, two sons, Jason (Joli) Todd Stangland of Verona, Wisconsin, and Eric (Devon) Eugene Stangland with one grandson, Calvin Carter, of Midland, Michigan. As the only daughter of a father with seven, and a mother with eleven adult siblings, she has an extensive extended family in the western United States. Consistent with her desires, cremation has taken place under the care of Forbes Funeral Home, and a private family ceremony to celebrate her life will be scheduled at a future date. The ashes will be scattered in the Trinity Lutheran Church All Saints Memorial Garden in Midland. In lieu of flowers, please consider either a donation in Jeanette’s name to a charity of your choice or the All Saints Memorial Garden, and share a memory.
