Jenene B. Rauth

Jenene B. Rauth

September 11, 1938 – July 11, 2025

Jenene Belle Rauth was called home to her Creator and Savior on July 11, 2025.

Jenene was born in the home of her beloved Grandaddy and Grandmother Sherman in Wakefield, Nebraska, on September 11, 1938. Her parents Norman and Geraldine Anderson were farmers, and Jenene was the eldest of their eight children.

From a one-room schoolhouse to earning her high school diploma in Wakefield, her Bachelor’s in Education from Wayne State and her Master’s in Counseling from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Jenene was a brilliant student, for she was an avid reader and learner. She began her career as a teacher in 1960, teaching English for a few years, but primarily teaching home economics and family life classes, usually in priority schools serving children needing an extra hand. In 1987, Jenene became a counselor at Bancroft Elementary, where she served for twelve years. In her long career of serving children in her community, Jenene focused on the holistic well-being of each one of the thousands of children entrusted to her care.

Jenene’s career service reflects what characterized her most – her devotion to the people God gave her to love. As a daughter, Jenene was obedient and served the family alongside her parents. As she grew, her parents became intimate friends. To her younger siblings – Wayne, Aonie, Lynn, Charlie, Pam, Rhonda, and Kendall – Jenene was a second mom (so protective, but also a bit bossy) and a confidant. For her first two children, Jeff and Karen, Jenene was their provider and protector, teacher and friend, their rock in all storms.

Jenene met Herm Rauth at Coping, a group for people working through the loss of a spouse due to death or divorce. Herm’s story is that Jenene chose him for the cowboy boots he wore to these meetings, but Jenene said she chose the man who filled those boots for his faithful heart. They married on June 27, 1981, with Jenene’s Jeff and Karen and Herm’s Jacque and Carrie standing by their side as they pledged their vows to one another. Jenene loved all her children, dosing out to each the grace and exhortation they needed to follow in her and Herm’s worn path of serving others. But Herm was the love of her life, the one she trusted most in this world.

Jenene’s grandchildren tell their friends, “My grandma is the perfect grandma” and go on to describe how she baked and sewed pillowcases with them or took them shopping for clothing or books, always with a little side jaunt to a favorite lunch spot for delicious conversation, where Grandma put her counseling skills to work. Jenene made sure each grandchild knew he or she was seen and loved by attending their games, performances, graduations and weddings. And she extended this same generous attentive love to her nieces and nephews.

If you were ever a child at some point in Jenene’s life whether that be as a student, a younger sibling, her child, niece, nephew, grandchild or great-grandchild or great-great grandchild, know that you are in her eyes beautiful and brilliant, capable of doing anything you set your mind to doing, but you are greatly esteemed in her eyes if you do what is just and right and do it with some spunk and humility. This is how Jesus did things, and Jenene loved Him with all He gave her to love Him with.

God gave Jenene a multitude of gifts and passions. Walk the land surrounding her home and your eyes will delight in resting upon her creative, even quirky, combinations of flowers and plants in every spare corner on the property. Come in the house and you might smell bread baking or chili bubbling on the stove. While you wait to eat, enjoy the artwork on the walls or the pottery tucked on antique furniture. These were all curated from her various travels, some from Europe, but mostly during Herm and Jenene’s years of traveling the States and their adventures as RV-ers. Sit on the couch, and if you are enjoying Jenene as much as she is enjoying you, she just might show you her poetry and memoirs of her childhood. Stay for dinner and you will hear her latest escapades with her coffee or quilting group.

Jenene made quilts for family members, babies, and for charity fund-raisers. She delighted in creating a gift someone would use every day for comfort, but it also had to be beautiful. She was particularly gifted at choosing fabric colors and patterns that complimented one another or created a striking contrast and in combining them in surprising ways. If you ever attended a BBQ at Herm and Jenene’s, sat among their blended upon blended large family, listened to their stories, and then turned to admire a quilt Jenene inevitably had draped on the staircase railing, then you might think: “This quilt pictures its maker.” I will let you draw that metaphor out for yourself — Jenene ever the poet would love that. But as you do, also consider how Jenene pictured her Maker and how in her you have seen Him as well.

Jenene is survived by her husband Herm Rauth and her children: Jeff Kunzman & wife Denise, Karen Paulson & husband Steve, Jacque Rauth, Carrie Jenkins & husband John; her grandchildren: Jeff Kunzman & wife Jamie, Joshua Kunzman, Toya Johnson & husband Julian, Tasha Johnson; Hannah Moreno & husband Peter, Jacob Paulson & wife Anna, Shetaye Paulson, Esayas Paulson, Sarah Paulson, Tseganesh Paulson, Alinah Paulson, Jenissa Paulson, Andrea Paulson; Aaron Reisinger, Isaac Reisinger; Jackson Jenkins, Campbell Jenkins, Ainsley Jenkins; and her siblings Andrea Gibson, Pamela Decker & husband Mike, Rhonda Balch, Kendall Anderson; 23 great grandchildren and 1 great-great granddaughter; and many beloved nieces and nephews and great nieces and nephews.

She was preceded in death by her parents Norman and Geraldine Anderson; siblings Wayne Anderson, Lynette Guthmiller, Charles Anderson and brothers-in-law Bill Gibson and Mike Balch, and by her great-grandson Jayden Kunzman

VISITATION: Wednesday, July 16, 2025, from 5pm to 7pm at the West Center Chapel, followed by VIGIL SERVICE at 7pm.

MASS OF CHRISTIAN BURIAL: Thursday, July 17th at 10am at St. Patrick Catholic Church , located at 215 N. 7^th St., Missouri Valley, IA.

GRAVESIDE SERVICE: Thursday, July 17th at 2:30pm at Resurrection Cemetery in Omaha, NE.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to the Notre Dame Sisters.

To view live broadcasts of the Vigil Service and Mass, please visit www.heafeyheafey.com and click the “Live Cast” button at the top of the home page.

Heafey-Hoffmann-Dworak-Cutler, West Center Chapel, 7805 West Center Road, Omaha, Ne 68124. (402)-391-3900. www.heafeyheafey.com