Jean Mildred Poss

Jean Mildred (Dwinell) Poss, 90, of Elba, died Thursday, June 26, at The Heritage at Sagewood in Grand Island.

Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Monday, June 30, 2025, at the United Methodist Church in St. Paul. The Revs. Nicole Schwartz-Eck and Cesar Duran will officiate.

Burial will follow in the Elba Cemetery in Elba.

Visitation will be from 4 to 6 p.m. on Sunday, June 29, also at the church.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are suggested to the Elba or St. Paul United Methodist Churches, Elba Community Foundation, Elba Fire and Rescue, or the Howard County Historical Society.

Peters Funeral Home of St. Paul is assisting the family.

Jean was born at home near Ericson, Nebraska, on January 31, 1935, to Albert and Mildred (Bowman) Dwinell. Two years later, the family moved to a ranch nine miles west of Bartlett, where she grew up with her brothers and sisters. As the oldest girl, Jean helped her mother care for her seven younger siblings.

She attended grade school at Gritta Ridge School and graduated from Wheeler County High School in Bartlett, where she took Normal Training. She later attended teaching school and summer sessions at Chadron State College.

Jean was a lifelong member of the Methodist Church. She enjoyed going to dances with friends and met Darwin Poss at a dance in the Old Bohemian Hall in Ord. Fifteen months later, on March 6, 1955, they were married at the Bartlett Methodist Church.

They lived southeast of Scotia on farms for eight years, during which time four sons were born: Marvin, Larry, Dennis, and Ronald. In 1962, they purchased a farm east of Elba, where they raised their family. Another son, Galen, was born, followed by a daughter, Karalyn Jean, to complete the family.

Jean enjoyed life and worked alongside her husband farming and ranching while raising their children. She loved sewing for the kids, cooking, teaching them new things, taking the little ones fishing, playing in the river, building tree houses, playing in the snow, taking road trips, gardening, yard work, 4-H, FFA, helping with livestock, driving tractors, operating machinery, and staying busy with whatever needed to be done. She loved her family, relatives, and friends—visiting, bringing treats, or lending a helping hand. Quilting was her special way of giving. Jean warmly welcomed new family members as the children married and grandchildren arrived. Jean enjoyed having slumber parties with her granddaughters, participating and judging in the annual Kolache Shootout and loved going on trips to the casinos.

She was active in church and community life, serving as an officer and member of the Elba UMW, Chaplain for St. Paul Unit 119 of the American Legion Auxiliary, and a volunteer at the Bloodmobile. She also contributed to the St. Paul Historical Society, Elba Senior Citizens, and the Elba Community Foundation, and played a key role in compiling their community cookbook. For many years Jean gave out agricultural scholarships for FFA members, in memory of her son and husband.

Jean participated in four Volunteer in Mission trips: to Pine Ridge, South Dakota, working with Native American schoolchildren; to McCurdy School in New Mexico; to Belize, helping build a church; and to Panama City, where she helped construct an outdoor kitchen for a school. She also visited her exchange student, Julia Brandl, and her family in Bamberg, Germany.

Jean enjoyed traveling and experiencing new places. Her greatest contributions to this world were her love for family, service to her community, and her ever-helpful spirit.

She is survived by her children: Marvin and Betty Poss of Elba; Larry and Penny Poss of Elba; Dennis and Shelly Poss of Wolbach; Galen and Christy Poss of Elba; and Karalyn and Nick Lewis of Ravenna. She is also survived by eleven grandsons, six granddaughters, their spouses, 43 great-grandchildren, and two great-great-grandchildren.

Other survivors include four sisters: Bertha Vogeler of Scotia, Alice Strom of Edgewood, New Mexico, JoAnn Dwinell of Scottsbluff, and Betty and Ben Schamp of Ord; one brother, Roy and Pat Dwinell of St. Paul; sisters-in-law: Elizabeth Poss of Scotia, and Erma and Bill Neel of North Loup; brothers-in-law: Donald Poss of Wolbach and Kenneth Poss of North Loup; along with many nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.

Jean was preceded in death by her parents, Albert and Mildred Dwinell; her husband, Darwin; her son, Ronald; her in-laws, Fred and Grace Poss; brothers, Dean and Ronald Dwinell; sister and brother-in-law, Shirley and Harold Bremer; sister-in-law, Kay Dwinell; brothers-in-law, Blaine Donner, Robert Vogeler, Floyd Strom, and Melvin Poss; and two nephews.