Jannie (Jennie) deKluijver was born on 1 November 1935, to Dirk deKluijver and Maria Kortleve, in the rural village of Oud-Alblas, Netherlands, the youngest of four children by quite a few years.

As a young girl and teenager, Jennie enjoyed working with her father on the dairy farm tending to the cows, chickens, pigs and horses, and helping her mother to make cheese. She milked cows with her father (by hand in those days) and navigated farm equipment through the fields with the work horses.

As much as she loved farm life, she also had a desire for adventure and informed her family that she would not marry a farmer unless he planned to emigrate to Canada. The family chuckled, then in 1956, she met Gerard (Gerald) Dirksen at a church function for single adults. Gerald had already set his sights on Canada, and the match was made. They married in March 1957, and three weeks later boarded a ship toward their new life in Ontario. Neither family had other direct family members who had previously emigrated, and all were apprehensive about this voyage to the unknown. Family members stood on the dock waving goodbye and thinking it might be the last time they would see each other.

Their church sponsor helped with the relocation to southern Ontario, where their two children were born, daughter Mary in 1958 and son Rick in 1959.

In 1963, the young family took a cross-continent road trip in a Volkswagen beetle to visit Gerald's cousins in Nampa, Idaho. Opportunities were apparent, and in 1964, the van Manen cousins sponsored the family's immigration to the US. They were welcomed by a large and wonderful community of Dutch immigrants who became extended family, a friendly church congregation at Valley Shepherd Nazarene , and a vibrant association of dairy farmers.

In 1969, Dirksland Dairy Registered Holsteins was established in Meridian, Idaho. Jennie was active in the Dairy Wives Club, becoming a chaperone for the annual Meridian Dairy Princess activities. She also enjoyed training and grooming cows for show in the Meridian Dairy Days and the Idaho State Fair.

The farm was a hub of activity, hosting church youth group parties in the barn, hayrides through the valley, constructing floats for the Meridian Dairy Days parade, and hosting agricultural students from the Netherlands for their practicum experience. When a local school district asked if a class of first graders could come to see a working dairy farm, Jennie enthusiastically agreed, volunteering husband Gerald as tour guide for the children to see the animals up-close and demonstrate milking cows by hand. Jennie provided the afternoon snack with fresh milk from the milk tank. She loved this opportunity to introduce children to farm life, and the tours became a regular spring activity for many years. The farm also became the neighborhood adoption center for stray cats, who Jennie insisted should not have to hunt for their dinner. At one time the population of cats living comfortably in the haybarn was 27.

Two deKluijver cousins from the Netherlands , brother and sister, who separately immigrated to California several years earlier became family touchstones. In her youth, Jennie often rode her bicycle through the polder and on the dikes to visit this family, with whom her parents had maintained contact after the difficulties of the war. Annual visits from the deKluijver family and the Vander Veen family to the Dirksen farm were highlights, with the 'California cousins' children enjoying participation in whatever farm activity was happening at the time. Through the years, there were also many visits by nieces and nephews from the Netherlands to who Jennie and Gerald enjoyed showing the splendors of Idaho.

Jennie embraced community volunteerism. She participated in local Red Cross blood drives, voter registration , 4-H club activities, and numerous animal protection and rescue projects for both domestic pets and Idaho's wildlife. Jennie was a devotee of water aerobics. When the athletic facility asked if she would consider becoming a leader, she overcame her anxiety about studying human anatomy in English and became a certified coach for arthritic water aerobics.

Tragically, son Rick died in a 1983 vehicle accident after his second year of teaching in a North Idaho high school. The family was sustained through this unimaginable grief with love and support from their church, the community, and the adopted extended family of Dutch immigrants.

After Gerald passed away in 1992, Jennie continued to tend to the scaled back herd of livestock on their semi-retirement farm on Victory Road before moving to a Meridian neighborhood two years later.

Though the years since emigrating from the Netherlands, Gerald and Jennie maintained communications with family friend Dan deLeeuw, a fellow immigrant who coincidentally had been on the same ship that brought them to Canada in 1957. Several years after Dan's wife Claire passed away and after Gerald had passed away, the long-time friends re-connected. In November 2000, Jennie and Dan married in the Ontario, Canada village of Colborne. She continued to enjoy rural life among the fruit trees of DeLeeuw Orchards in Colborne. She loved the extended deLeeuw family members as her own. She made friends easily and also found a new community of Dutch immigrants.

In Colborne, Jennie became an active member in Old St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church. She participated in the Women's Auxiliary, including church fundraising through the sale of homemade pie sales and refreshments to busloads of tourists from Toronto on the annual Apple Tours through the Northumberland area orchards. She also volunteered for Community Care Northumberland, driving community members who needed assistance to their medical or other appointments. In Colborne as well as in Meridian, she made it a personal commitment to bring meals to those in need and visited senior citizens who had difficulties remaining socially active.

After Dan passed away in December 2017, Jennie moved into a retirement community in Cobourg, Ontario. The deLeeuw family children, in-laws, and grandchildren lovingly looked after her between Mary's visits. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Jannie was treated to her 85th birthday celebration in the spacious Vander Meer Toyota showroom in Cobourg with appropriate social distancing and masking observed.

The two-year coronavirus travel ban between the US and Canada, was a difficult separation. In November 2021, when the travel ban was lifted, Mary was able to visit, and it was clear that a move to a care facility close to Mary was required. In January 2022, Jennie relocated to Echo Lake Adult Family Home in Shoreline, Washington, near Seattle, where she was cared for by the nursing assistants with kindness.

Jennie passed away peacefully in her sleep in the early hours of August 9, 2025. She and Mary had discussed the end of life on Earth many times and what we believe comes thereafter. She was comfortable with and not afraid of the next stage. In the last few months, as the progression of Alzheimer's Disease took away her ability to verbalize, we sat together holding hands with unspoken communication of love in abundance.

Throughout her life, Jennie quietly demonstrated in words and deeds the blessing of kindness, generosity and service to others. She loved meeting people and learning their story, including friends of her children. Jennie became honorary Tante (auntie) to many friends and neighbors, loving them as her own. I, daughter Mary, am so grateful for her life lessons and for the privilege that she was my Mam.

Jennie was preceded in death by son Rick, husband Gerald, and husband Dan. She is survived by daughter Mary, the wonderful children, in-laws, and grandchildren of her second husband Dan, nieces, nephews and cousins in the Netherlands, Canada, and the US. She will be missed by many loved ones who called her Tante, Oma, and friend.

Memorial donations may be sent to the Rick Dirksen Memorial Scholarship Fund, University of Idaho Foundation, 875 Perimeter Dr. MS 3143,, Moscow, ID 83844-3143.

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