Judith ‘Judy’ Arjes, 78
Judith “Judy” Arjes, age 78 of Lawler, died Tuesday, Dec. 21, 2021, at Mayo Clinic Hospital, Saint Marys Campus in Rochester, Minnesota.
A funeral service will be planned for a later date. Hugeback-Johnson Funeral Home and Crematory has been entrusted with arrangements.
Judy was born on September 18, 1943, to Ted and Deloris Jorgenson in Clarion, where she and her brother grew up and received their educations. During high school, she was very active in swimming and served as a lifeguard at the Clarion pool, where she also taught classes to other lifeguards.
After graduating from Clarion High School in 1961, she attended business college in Des Moines before receiving her associate of arts degree from Waldorf College in Forest City.
Judy transferred to Wartburg College, where she met a former Knight named Jim Arjes, a young widower, and father to Mark and Dana, who had taken his first teaching job at Clarion. She asked him how he liked teaching in her hometown, and a spark was lit. The two began dating — often with Mark and Dana along for the ride – fell in love and were married on December 17, 1965, in Clarion.
The couple had a third child, Cory, and Jim taught and coached at Clarion and Nevada before the family put down their roots in Lawler and the Turkey Valley school district. When Cory headed off to school, so, too, did Judy as she accepted a job as a paraeducator at the school.
Mark, Dana, and Cory had a mother who may have been small in stature but she was a strong, tough little cookie who epitomized selflessness. It didn’t matter if it was her parents, her husband, her kids, her grandchildren, her great-grandchildren, her students, her friends, or even those she hardly knew, Judy always put them first and herself second.
Now, at the same time, she had her ways of making her points; just ask Mark, Dana, and Cory, and they will tell you that mom knew exactly where every single pressure point on someone’s pinky was located! But she was also the kind of mom that her kids knew would give them the best advice, the kind that they needed to hear.
Judy loved going dancing, playing cards, and going to the casino with Jim. The couple belonged to Trinity Lutheran Church in New Hampton, and they often volunteered their time and talents at Trinity. And Judy was an avid reader, and her interests truly ran the gamut.
She loved her three children, her 11 grandchildren, and her 12 great-great-grandchildren, and she couldn’t wait to meet the two “greats” that are on the way. Judy’s best talent may have been her ability to listen, followed closely by the fact that she did not have a single selfish bone in her entire body.
When she married Jim 56 years ago, she accepted Mark and Dana as her own, but she also knew how important it was for them to have relationships with their mother’s family so Mark, Dana, and yes Cory, too, visited Grandma Hazel often.
That was Judy. Others came first. Always.
And that makes her passing — especially so soon after Jim’s death — so difficult, but those who knew and loved her have countless wonderful memories of this kind woman who packed a lot of spirit and love into her 78 years.
Judy is survived by two sons, Mark (Cathi) Arjes of Owatonna, MN, Cory (Michelle) Arjes of Austin, MN; one daughter, Dana (George) Jons of Arlington, TX; 11 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; one brother, Ted (Carmen) Jorgensen of Fremont, California; one brother-in-law, Richard (Ann) Arjes of Waverly, IA; one foster brother-in-law, Robert (Norma) Garrett of Waverly, IA; one sister-in-law, Betty Johnson of Colorado.
She was preceded in death by her husband, Jim Arjes who passed on June 4, 2021; her parents; one brother-in-law Roger Arjes.
