A three year journey with cancer ended on Saturday, January 28, 2017 for Jeanne Ann Zyck as she passed on while at home with her husband, Bob, at her side.
Jeanne was born May 30, 1954 in Fairmont, MN, and grew up in Red Wing, MN, a beautiful small town on the Mississippi River an hour southeast of Minneapolis. Jeanne graduated from Pacific Lutheran University in Washington State in 1980. She met Bob, who was in the Army stationed at nearby Ft. Lewis, while taking her final class before graduating. They married in 1982, with Jeanne wearing a beautiful white wedding gown that she had made herself.
After job moves took them to Chicago, New York and Atlanta, Bob and Jeanne came to Kansas City in 1995 with their three young kids. That year Jeanne started her own business, Heartland Stitcheries. This was a perfect outlet for her artistic talents and it allowed her to be at home for her children while working at something she enjoyed.
Jeanne quickly developed a reputation in the Kansas City area as a most skilled hand guided machine quilter. Before long she had more customers bringing their quilts than she could handle. She skillfully created unique stitching designs for each and every one; often giving advice and fixing errors made by the less experienced quilters. Jeanne especially cherished the wonderful friendships she made through her business contacts and the Kansas City area quilting community.
Aside from machine quilting as her business, Jeanne’s hobby was making her own quilts. Over the past 20 years she spent countless hours crafting more than 400 beautiful quilts; she never sold a single one, stating that a price could not be put on the joy, attention and personalized effort that went into each and every one. She gave most of them to friends, relatives, and charities.
Jeanne was a fabulous cook, and she loved to bake. There always seemed to be sitting on the kitchen counter more than one cake or pie, or some other unusual concoction she tried out from one of her many cook books.
Jeanne also liked to travel, but more often, she simply enjoyed being at home and doing things with Bob, like biking the nearby park trails, doing household projects together, and going to KC Royals games.
Of most importance to Jeanne was properly raising her three children and taking care of them and her husband, making her home a warm and comfortable place. After learning of her cancer early in 2014 Jeanne was blessed and so happy to be able to see all of her children marry, and even see her first grandchild, Elise Anne Zyck, the cutest little granddaughter on planet Earth.
Jeanne was preceded in death by her father, George L. Brooks. She is survived by her three children: David, William and Alexandra, and their spouses: Jessica, Julie and Brian; husband of 35 years, Robert (Bob) Zyck; mother, Marjorie Brooks, brothers: James Brooks, Robert Brooks, and William Brooks; sister, Geri Brooks, and granddaughter, Elise.
While many will remember Jeanne for her quilting and artistic talents our most cherished memories will be of her as a most wonderful and loving mother, wife, daughter and dearest friend; the one with the cheerful heart!
A private memorial service will be held in the coming days
