Judy passed peacefully at her home in Overland Park on the morning of 11/29/2020.   She was born on 6/10/1944 in Omaha, Nebraska, the daughter of John Miles Leypoldt and Catherine Spencer.  She was the granddaughter of Frances Spencer of Grand Island, NE, whom she greatly adored and admired as a child.

Her youth was spent in Omaha where she attended Dundee Presbyterian Church as a child and graduated West Side High School in 1962 along with her friends Trudy Gruidel, Nancy Holle and Bob Hays, among others.  Following high school, she married James Zeman, who worked for F.W. Woolworth’s in Omaha, and the two of them enjoyed their newlywed days in Panama where James served in the army as a missile and rocketry technician.  They narrowly escaped harm in the Day of Martyrs Rebellion in Panama when a young Manuel Noriega arranged their rescue from the conflict, which involved a dispute by locals over the American flag being flown above the Panamanian flag.  Judy was flown home to Omaha with fallen American soldiers and Deputy Secretary of Defense Cyrus Vance.  Following this, the pair resided in the towns of Omaha, Beatrice, Lincoln, Spencer WI, Fargo, Waterloo IA, Hamburg IA, Overland Park KS, and Springfield, Missouri before Judy relocated to Overland Park her latter years following her husband’s death.

Along her journey, she raised her children lovingly and assisted in the family dimestore in Hamburg, IA.  Later she worked as a well loved Personal Care Assistant for Oxford Home Health in Springfield, and also as a Nanny and school cafeteria worker.  In Overland Park, in her latter years, she worked at Children’s Village Montessori Daycare and later ran her own in-home licensed daycare where she was also well loved and remembered by many families, providers, and children.   She was a beloved, motherly shoulder and friend for many whom she befriended in life including Gary Hansen, of Hamburg, Iowa, Sue O’Donnell of Overland Park, the Gill family of Montana including Jakob and Jessie (“her Joy”), the Sloan family including Kiefer and Cooper, the Olive family of Springfield including David, Lillian, and Frances, and Cathy Stewart of Springfield, Leann Manifold, Jane Manning, and her good neighbor Dorothy Jimerson, all of whom she considered her family.  During her final year she appreciated the steadfast kindness and care of her personal care aides who helped her, a former aide herself, in her final tedious struggle with dementia, including Angel, Astou, Macy, Unique, Karen and Sharon, among others, as well as her hospice nurses Rachel and Sheena.  Many thanks also for the kindness and charity of St Joseph Medical Center and her caring physician's Matthew Buss, Kirk Sloan, Anil Gosalia, Kuldeep Singh, Arthur Allen, and practitioners Anucio Joseph and Saida Alarab.

 Judy was a devoted woman in her faith and spent her final years in fellowship with Overland Park Christian Church, where she publicly confessed Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior and was baptized in recent years.  She appreciated the ministry and help of her faith sisters there including Laura, Peggy and Sharon among many.

Judy is survived by her children, John and Steve Zeman, of the Kansas City area, with their spouses Diane and Christy, and has now departed to join her first born child, Joy, and her loving husband, James, and grandmother Frances, whom she ultimately grew to become very much like after so many years.  Judy was and is a caring, loving, childlike soul, and her presence in this world will be greatly missed.  Her spirit and memory will be reflected upon and cherished by all who knew her, and the love she gave will be forever shared.

Funeral will be 2:30 pm Sunday, December 6th at Overland Park Christian Church, 7600 W 75th St., Overland Park, KS.  Masks required. Services may also be live-streamed at http://www.opccdoc.org/digital-funerals/judy-zeman-memorial-service or https://www.facebook.com/opccdoc

Interment of urn will be 2:00 PM Monday, December 7th at Westlawn Cemetery in Omaha.