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Ward Obituary
Jean Ward, age 99, of Aurora, passed away Saturday, January 6, 2024 at Memorial Community Care.
Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday, January 18 at the Aurora United Methodist Church, 1104 A Street, Aurora. Rev. Michelle Reed will officiate. The service will be livestreamed on the church’s website. Please go to www.umcaurora.org, scroll down and click on livestream. Inurnment will be at Wyuka Cemetery, Lincoln, at a later date. Visitation will be from 5-7 p.m. on Wednesday at Higby-McQuiston Mortuary in Aurora. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made in care of the family to designate at a later date. Condolences may be e-mailed to the family at the mortuary website at higbymortuary.com.
Jean May Ward, the daughter of Edward and Fannie (Trenary) McGaugh was born on January 2, 1925 in Burr, and passed away on January 6, 2024 in Aurora, at the age of 99.
She grew up on her family’s farm outside of Burr with vivid memories of feeding baby lambs in the middle of cold, winter nights as well as herding cows in the road ditches during the Dust Bowl/Depression days. Jean graduated from Burr High School and went to Peru State College, earning her teaching certificate during World War II. Jean taught at two small country schools where she started the wood stove each morning and brought in water from the well. Many students were bigger than her!
Jean married Lee Ward after World War II and moved to Lincoln, where she worked for the Elgin Watch Company before her long-term occupation as a mother. Their first child, Jerry, died in infancy. Patti was born shortly after.
Jean moved to Aurora in 2012 to be closer to Tom and Patti where she joined the Aurora United Methodist Church and made many friends.
Jean was an avid reader and Word Search Puzzle fan. Most activities were centered around their family and extended family. There were a lot of fishing trips and card games with the Ward Clan. Lee and Jean spent several summers camping and fishing in Canada as well as winters camping and exploring in Texas, Nevada, and Arizona. The McGaugh-Dickey reunions every 2 years were a highlight of her life. She taught her grandsons how to walk or take the city bus wherever they needed to go.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Lee Wayne Ward; infant son, Jerry Lee Ward; and brothers and sisters, Gayland McGaugh, Edward McGaugh, Jr, Gwen Dirks and Dot McGaugh.
Those left to cherish her memory are her daughter and son-in-law, Patti Joy (Thomas Clark) Kell of Aurora and grandsons, Brian Lee Kell of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Bradley Alan Kell of Aurora as well as other family and friends.
