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Jane Marie Pappas Ray - Rochester
11/21/2006
ROCHESTER - The Mass of Christian Burial for Jane Marie Pappas Ray will be at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Mankato, Minn.
Mrs. Ray, 49, a Rochester native, died Sunday (Nov. 19, 2006) at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, following a bone marrow transplant.
Jane Marie Pappas was born July 19, 1957, in Rochester, and graduated from John Marshall High School. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from Minnesota State University, Mankato. On Aug. 20, 1994, she married Steven Ray at St. Joseph the Worker Catholic Church in Mankato. She was a teacher in Mankato for Independent School District 77 for more than 30 years. She was active in many district organizations such as diversity committee, language arts committee, and the Educare Foundation, and also served as Science Fair coordinator, site team member and Spanish grant participant at Jefferson Elementary in Mankato. Each holiday season she gathered gifts, clothing and food for students in need.
Survivors include her husband; a son, Charles Eppard of North Mankato, Minn.; three brothers, Jay (Becky Collin) Pappas of Mankato, Michael (Carolina) Pappas of Rochester and Charles (Julie) Pappas of Minneapolis; and two sisters, Mary Alice Pappas of West Palm Beach, Fla., and Susan (Robert Varco) Pappas Varco of Anoka, Minn. Other survivors include Pappas family nieces and nephews, James and Jay Pappas, Megan Miranda, Barrett Pappas, Justin Johnson, Allison, Lauren, Alyssa, and Michael Pappas, and Elizabeth Varco; her mother-in-law, Polly Ray; three brothers-in-law, Tim (Susan) Ray, Tom (Jill) Ray, Rob (Sandy) Ray; a sister-in-law, Mary Jo (John) Brindley; and Ray family nieces and nephews, Jackson, Brogan, Rhiannon, Ben, Dane and Ivy Ray, and Hunter and Halle Brindley. She was preceded in death by her parents, James M. and Alice (Barrett) Pappas.
A memorial visitation with the family will be from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Mankato Mortuary, and will continue an hour before the service Friday at the church.
Memorials are preferred to the Jane Pappas Ray Children's Fund for children in need at Jefferson School, 100 James Ave., Mankato, MN 56001.
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Tracy Beck
Little did I know at our 30 year reunion, this would be the last time we would see Jane. She was an exceptional person proven by what she accomplished in life. She was very proud of her husband Steve, and son Charlie. We talked of getting our families together to fish, wish I could have made that happen. There will be a considerable void at the rest of our Class 75 reunions. I guess God needed her sooner than we were willing to let her go.Ginger Nereson (Fieseler)
I'll never forget how much fun we shared with Jane the weekend of our 30th class reunion. About 12 or 14 high school girlfriends went to Becky Severson (Amundson) cabin by Lake Sakata. She was struggling with health issues but she was such a trooper. We ate, drank, smoked a few, went on the water, sat by the campfire and partied until the sun came up! Mary Zirbes gave her a ride on the jet ski and dunked her and it was not a gentle dunk to say the least. We have made an annual party at Bec's each summer and we did not think that the 2nd annual would be without our sweet friend Jane. Hard to believe another 5 year reunion has passed. I"m so glad we got to share our thoughts of Jane with other classmates!! We miss Jane so much!!
Ginger (Nereson) Fieseler