Jeanette (née Terhaar) Mischke Andrews
April 8, 1924 ~ April 30, 2022

Jeanette (née Terhaar) Mischke Andrews, age 98, of Saint Paul, passed from this earth with serenity, on April 30, 2022.

She was a gentle, playful, thoughtful and joyful woman whose life was lit by the love of children. First, by her love for the many grade-school kids she taught in one-room school houses on the prairie in Central Minnesota, and then by the love of her eight children whom she raised selflessly, lovingly, patiently and with great delight. And finally, by the love of her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
If you wanted to know all the different parts of this beautiful woman, you would have had to first hear her sing with that pitch-perfect voice, sing while doing laundry, sing while pushing a child in a swing, sing with her five sisters and four brothers at spirited family gatherings, or sing in church with a group of guitar-playing women every Sunday at 10:30 mass.

You would have also needed to hear her play the piano, with heart and passion, and teach her children to do the same. Ideally you would also see her, in her mid-50s, holding her trophy high above her head as the St. Paul Women's Ping-Pong Champion.

And to find the playful child who resided inside this mature wife and mother, you would have also needed to watch her morph into a jungle monkey and chase her screaming children around the house, upstairs and down.

She was the last living member of the Nick and Amanda Terhaar family, of Cold Spring, Minnesota, an extraordinary tribe of kindred spirits whose songs, laughter and exuberant sense of humor continue on in their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Jeanette will be remembered as a woman who greeted the world each day with open arms, who took pleasure in the simple things the world offered, like the tone of a blue sky in May, the appearance of a cardinal on a tree branch, or the magic of a winter snowfall.

She saw the goodness in all souls and moved through her life treating everyone equally, no matter their story. All those who knew her felt great affection for her. She was an inspiration to many, and will be profoundly missed, by family, friends and extended relatives.

This gracious woman was preceded in death by her parents Nicholas and Amanda Terhaar and siblings Hortense, Delores, Mary Louise, Fred, Doraine, Jerome, James, Claire Ann and Richard and also by husbands Maurice Mischke and Dale Andrews, and daughter Carla Mischke.

Survived by her daughter Laura Martin and her husband Jim, and sons Paul, Michael, Gerry, John and his wife Sherie Bosak, Dale and his wife Heidi Mischke, Tommy and his wife Rosie O'Brien, grandchildren Emily Friday(AJ), Katy Beal (David) Rose Martin, Sonja Mischke, Joe and Maia Mischke, Mac and Malone Mischke, Casey O'Brien, Graham O'Brien (Celena), great-grandchildren Mila and Jack Beal, Rue O'Brien and Ellowyn Friday, and many friends and extended relatives.

Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m Monday, May 9, at O'Halloran & Murphy, 575 S. Snelling Ave., with a sharing of memories to begin at 6 p.m. Mass of Christian Burial at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, May 10 (visitation 10-11 am) at Nativity Church, 1938 Stanford Ave. Luncheon to follow. The Mass will also be live-streamed at https://nativitystpaul.org/online-liturgies for those who are unable to attend in person.

Private interment will be at Resurrection Cemetery, 2101 S. Lexington Ave., Mendota Heights, Minnesota.

Jeanette's Photo's and Life Story courtesy of her family and O'Halloran & Murphy Funeral and Cremation Services, Saint Paul, Minnesota.