Judy Linnemann was born Judith Mary Sedlacek in Marysville, Kansas, to Frank and Eileen Sedlacek August 27, 1949. She passed away peacefully in her sleep December 31, 2022, in Manhattan, Kansas, in the company of her family.
Judy spent her childhood outdoors, hunting for arrowheads and running the fields and creeks of her family’s farm alongside her older sisters Rosalie (McKee) and Beth (Warders). Though the family moved to Blue Rapids in her early teens, the “Shady Nook” farm on the west river road just north of Waterville remained a gathering spot for friends and family and her home for the rest of her life.
In 1967, she was part of the inaugural graduating class of Valley Heights High School, and after graduation, moved to Colorado to attend Denver Women’s College.
In 1974 she gave birth to her son, Travis. Judy was a devoted and doting mother, throwing her energies wholeheartedly into her son’s activities, whatever they might be.
She married Jerry Linnemann in 1978. Thereafter, Judy, Travis, Jerry and his children Stan, Linda, Rick and Julie made a home on Ann Street in Marysville. Though she held a variety of jobs throughout her life, it was her time operating The Mercantile in Waterville with Beth and a lawn and garden center in Marysville with Jerry, that gave her the most satisfaction.
Judy was a great fan of folk and country music and loved to play the guitar and sing with her sisters, nieces, and nephews or whoever else might want to sit in. She also had a great eye for antiques and rarely declined an opportunity to take in an auction or just go “junkin’.”
From the late 1990s to the early 2000s, she lived in southeast Nebraska on a bluff overlooking the Missouri river and spent her summers there on the water.
Her retirement years were spent in Manhattan, where she continued to scour antique stores, keep up with friends and family and eagerly await summer visits from her son and the Wildcats and the Chiefs each fall. As a family member aptly described her, “she was pure and sweet to her core, with just the right amount of orneriness.”
Judy is survived by Travis Linnemann and Corina Medley (Manhattan), Rick and Kelly Linnemann (Manhattan), Rosalie and Jerry McKee (Salina), Beth and Gary Warders (Waterville) and a large extended family of McKees and Warders, all of whom she loved dearly.
The family will greet friends during a visitation from 9:30 until 11:00a.m. Saturday January 7, 2023 at the Yorgensen-Meloan-Londeen Funeral Home in Manhattan.
Private inurnment will be held at a later date.