Jane Corinne St. Onge, 80

Jane Corinne St. Onge, age 80, of Lindstrom, Minnesota, passed away on the morning of Friday, September 11, 2026, after a long and tender goodbye shaped by the slow unraveling of Alzheimer’s disease.

Born on February 28, 1946, to William and Corinne Clarkson, Jane grew up in Capac, Michigan, where her family ran a dairy business. She worked at the family’s Dairy Bar alongside her sister Ann and Grandma Edna, serving root beer floats while daydreaming of life as an artist. Jane was everyone’s favorite babysitter, a role that hinted at her lifelong connection to children and her eventual calling as an elementary school teacher. Along the way, she also became a talented beautician, painter, and sketch artist, always finding her way back to creativity.

Jane met Jim St. Onge at Central Michigan University, and they married on August 20, 1966, at St. Dennis Catholic Church in Lexington, Michigan. Their wedding was followed by a lively reception at the Harrington Hotel in Port Huron. After a honeymoon in Northern Michigan and on Mackinac Island, they moved to Minnesota to begin their shared life.

Together, Jane and Jim raised two children: Andrew James of Little Rock, Arkansas, and Jill Corinne of Carmichael, California. Jane created a home filled with books, routines, and traditions. Her children remember thoughtfully planned birthdays, camping trips, and holiday rituals that became the architecture of their childhood.

In 1978, Jane returned to college to complete degrees in both Elementary Education and Fine Arts. That decision reignited her passion for learning and launched a second act as both artist and educator. Her creative spirit expressed itself through sculpture, weaving, pottery, photography, and even a silent film still hoped to be found in a dusty box.

Beauty in the details, that was her gift.

Jane began her teaching career in 1981 at Malone Elementary in Prescott, Wisconsin, where she helped more than 1,000 children learn to read and write. Her classroom was a place of imagination and structure, and “her kids” remained a source of pride long after she retired. She continued collecting children’s literature and was the first in the family to speak with excitement about a young wizard named Harry Potter.

For the last three decades of her life, Jane embraced her role as “Gigi.” She was a grandmother to Hannah Corinne (31) of Carmichael, California; Madeline Adaire (30) of Little Rock, Arkansas; Jackson Edward (27) of Denver, Colorado; and Maxwell Noah (22) of Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Jane’s final years were shaped by Alzheimer’s. It is a difficult and humbling disease, one that revealed the tenderness and resilience of the people around her. In her forgetting, certain truths became clearer. We learned that connection doesn’t rely only on memory, that presence can outlast language, and that even in decline, the essence of a person can still show through in flashes of humor, sweetness, and spark. This long goodbye changed us, and in many ways, taught us.

Mom. Gigi. Jane.

You gave us creativity, intelligence, imagination, and a deep appreciation for the beauty in small things.

We love you. We will remember you.

Family and friends are invited to gather in celebration of Jane’s life at 11 a.m. Wednesday, September 30, at Zion Lutheran Church, 28005 Old Towne Road, Chisago City, Minnesota. Visitation one hour prior to the service at church.

A luncheon and time together will follow the service.

In lieu of flowers, Jane’s family invites you to honor her memory with an act of kindness toward a hospice in your community, through your time or resources, helping extend the compassion and comfort that surrounded Jane in her final years. Arrangements by the Grandstrand Funeral Home in Lindstrom, Minnesota. Condolences may be expressed online at grandstrandfh.com.