Jean Raynor Bunge

Jean Raynor Bunge, of Worthington, Minnesota, passed away peacefully in her sleep at age 99 on August 14, 2023 but her legacy lives on in the many lives she enriched and the multitude of stray animals she rescued. Jean, as she was known, was an only child born Margaret Jean Raynor to Ernest Garfield Raynor and Margaret Raynor (nee MacDonald) in Pierre, South Dakota. Her mother hailed from Canada and her father was descended from some of the earliest settlers of what was to become the United States of America. Jean was very proud of her genealogy and was invited to join the Daughters of the American Revolution. Jean had an idyllic childhood in Pierre, South Dakota where she attended the public high school and played violin and saxophone in the City Band. Her father was a state highway engineer and took the family to the Black Hills in South Dakota each summer while he was working on road designs. Jean attended girl scout camp there and the family enjoyed camping and trout fishing. Jean developed a lifelong love of the Black Hills and continued to visit throughout her life. Her favorite place was Spearfish Canyon. Jean attended college at Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri and then transferred to Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. She majored in industrial management and, upon graduation, moved to Chicago to work in personnel management for Sears at their store on State Street. Shortly thereafter, one of the girls in Jean’s building, coincidentally named Jean Bunge, was expecting a visit from her older brother and a couple of his fraternity brothers from the University of Minnesota who wanted to be fixed up with dates. Blind dates were arranged. Jean’s roommate was paired with Jean Bunge’s brother and Jean Raynor was paired with one of his fraternity brothers. The assigned pairings did not work out but the brother, Martin Bunge, and Jean Raynor were attracted and worked it out for themselves. Jean married Martin Ernest Bunge on August 6, 1949 in her hometown, Pierre, with plans to live on the Bunge farm near Heron Lake, Minnesota where Martin would work with his father and eventually take over the farm. Jean had not visited the area prior to her marriage but had looked up Heron Lake on a map. She was very excited to see that she would be living so near this very large lake and pictured a beautiful deep lake where she would enjoy summer days boating, swimming and picnicking. She got quite a surprise when she saw Heron Lake for the first time. She never considered duck hunting. Three years later, Martin and Jean welcomed their first child, Megan, subsequently followed by Christian and then Sarah. In addition to farming crops and raising livestock, Jean’s love of horses led them purchase the Okabena lumberyard building to start a horse facility at the farm with an indoor arena and boarding stalls. Moving the building was a significant challenge because it was too high to fit under the bridge at Okabena but Jean always loved a challenge. They solved that problem by cutting the building in five sections and towing them over the frozen creek on skids. Jean was very active in running the stable operation offering horse boarding and training, as well as, cutting and roping events. They also bred and raised quarter horses and Jean acquired an expert knowledge of quarter horse blood lines. All three children participated in the horse operation and became experts in horsemanship, attending horse shows nearly every weekend and winning many trophies and awards under Jean’s stewardship. Jean was not a soccer mom or a hockey mom, she was a horsemanship mom. She also enjoyed trail riding and took the horses for camping trips with friends and family to her beloved Black Hills. Jean was a expert seamstress and sewed all of the girls’ clothing until she was able to teach them to sew their own. She enabled her children to excel in their 4-H projects and encouraged their exhibitions at the county and state fairs. Her other hobbies included raising and breeding tropical fish, flower gardening and adopting stray dogs and cats, of which there were many, some with more legs than others. Martin eventually returned to the University of Minnesota to earn teaching credentials to pursue his love of education and sharing knowledge with others. When he accepted his first teaching job, Martin and Jean moved to Houston, Minnesota for several years and then moved to Sheldon, Iowa, where Martin taught at the Community College for many years. When Martin retired in 1974, he and Jean moved back to Heron Lake farm and remained there until Martin passed away in 2014. At that time, Jean moved to her home in Worthington where she enjoyed ten years of living near the lake. Martin and Jean’s youngest daughter, Sarah, discovered a love of art in high school and persuaded them to buy her a used ceramic kiln. When Sarah went to college in Tucson, Arizona, she was unable to take the kiln with her. Sarah left the kiln, and, Jean, now an empty nester, decided she should try that kiln. She began taking ceramic classes at Worthington Community College and eventually expanded to other media. Her favorite professor, Bill Prickett, was the director of the Nobles County Art Center and encouraged Jean and Martin to become involved. They eventually took over the directorship. Jean grew the permanent collection from about 25 art pieces when they took over to nearly 400. Martin and Jean were constantly attending art shows throughout the area and reaching out to new artists to feature at the Art Center. Jean worked tirelessly to promote the arts locally and to expand interest in the Art Center. Their outreach made it possible to start opening a new show every month and also brought visual arts and musical performances to the shows. They kept the Art Center alive in Worthington when similar art centers in the surrounding towns came and went, never operating for the long term. Jean finally retired from her position at the Nobles County Art Center after Martin’s death in 2014 after more than forty years as director. The Art Center continues to thrive with the foundation built by Martin and Jean. Jean is survived by her three children, Megan and her partner, Gabe, her son Chris and his wife Sherrie and her daughter Sarah and husband Tom. Jean is proceeded in death by her husband, Martin, who passed in 2014 and her parents, Ernest and Margaret Raynor and Cindy Bunge, Chris Bunge’s late wife. Jean will be fondly remembered by all who knew her. A celebration of life will be held at the Nobles County Art Center, 407 12th Street, Worthington, Minnesota on July 6, 2024 at 10 a.m. Internment will be in Eitzen, Minnesota. The family requests any contributions be made the Nobles County Art Center.