Obituary of Jean Ocken

Ocken, Jean Pattridge As of November 17, 2014, Jean Pattridge Ocken, age 87, of Golden Valley, has taken her beloved Yorkies, her miniatures and her memories of international travel to the Lake Superior North Shore in the Sky and has begun her Heavenly Fishing Trip. Jean has been met by her college date, fishing buddy and former husband Jay and their eldest son, Raymond Jay. They will be carrying the Tupperware. She is survived by her sons, Pat (Barbara) of Superior, Wisconsin and Paul (Darlene) of Brooklyn Park and her daughter-in-love Kay (Gary) VanSickle of Milaca, MN; by seven grandchildren and twelve great-grandchildren. Jean was born to Mark Otis Pattridge, DDS, and Edith Knight Pattridge on November 2, 1927, in Minneapolis. She graduated from West High in 1945. She studied art in Cape Cod and at the Chicago Institute of Art, drawing fashion for Marshall Field before coming back to Minneapolis to do the same for Munsingwear. She married Paul Jonathon Acker ("Jay") Ocken in 1949 and followed him to California through the end of his active Navy service during the Korean Conflict. In Minneapolis in the 1950s, Jean used her artistic skills to help support her family and help raise other Baby Boomers with the Naughty Stick (Mpls. Star Tribune, 11/28/1955 "Speak Softly and Hang Up a Big Stick"): a piece of pine shaped with a grip handle and custom painted to suit the decor -- and thus remain quite visible -- in any home. The mere threat, "Do I have to get the stick?" served as a nuclear deterrent to questionable behavior of hundreds of young boys. She sold Tupperware in the '60s, teaching those Boomer parents how to "burp" it and establishing The Daisies -- her sales team named after her favorite flower. She could not contain her artistic talent, though, and continued with practical art that included antiqued lunch boxes (Star-Trib, 6/26/1967), along with countless other home art projects, many of which sold well. Her passion later in life became dollhouses and miniatures and her collection was always open at her Golden Valley home for the "short" tour -- or the three-hour tour. Her fame spread to the artistic community on the North Shore of Lake Superior, where she summered every August. She spent 15 years working for General Mills, where she would portray Betty Crocker at the National Food Convention in Chicago, autographing cookbooks in calligraphy. A memorial gathering will be held December 6th at the Cremation Society of Minnesota in Brooklyn Park, from 11 am - 2 pm.