Elsie O. Jacobson

Elsie Olivia Jacobson age 91 of Menlo Park, California, died on Tuesday, February 19, 2019 at the Providence Medical Center in Wayne, Nebraska. A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, March 5, 2019 at 1:30 pm at the Hillcrest Care Center in Laurel, Nebraska with Pastor Matthew Quanbeck officiating. Private committal services will be in California at a later date. Arrangements are under the direction of the Wintz Funeral Home in Laurel, NE. Elsie Olivia Jacobson was born on June 23, 1927 to Danish immigrants Magnus and Olivia (Vorum) Hansen on a farm north of Laurel. Elsie graduated from Laurel High School in 1944. Shortly after, she went to California where jobs were abundant and lived with her sister Ruby Merriam and family. She returned to Laurel a year later to help in the operation of the Hansen Dairy for some months, returning to California in 1946. At that time, she began employment at the California Water Company where she retired as office manager of the Menlo Park office after 45 years of employment there. Elsie met Albert Carl (Jake) Jacobson at the water company. They were married on July 25, 1948. They lived their entire lives in Menlo Park, where they both worked for the water company and enjoyed their home and the big back yard filled with flowers and fruit trees. Elsie loved people and always struck up a conversation with anyone with the greatest of ease. She will be missed for her big smile, cheerful spirit and generous heart. Elsie came to Laurel in April of 2016 to be near family, though she retained her residence in California. She was surrounded by love from her nieces and nephews in California and Laurel. She was preceded in death by her husband Jake in 2000, her parents, two brothers Peter and William Hansen; six sisters, Kaja Gade, Ruth Crandall, Ruby Merriam, Anne Kathol, Viola Wilson, and Joyce Galvin Rath; and one nephew Thomas Merriam. Those left to cherish her memory are brother James Hansen of Pleasant Prairie, WI; two sisters Betty Niceswanger of Fort Dodge, IA and Jacqueline Burns of Grand Island, Nebraska; nieces and nephews and a special helper and friend from the water company, Michael Garibaldi.