Jean Olive Lundgren

Jean Olive (Longwell) Lundgren, 77, passed away on February 7, 2024, at Marquis Plum Ridge in Klamath Falls, Oregon, after being diagnosed with advanced metastatic cancer in June 2023.

Jean Longwell was born on February 26, 1946, at the Naval Ordnance Test Station (NOTS) at China Lake, in California’s Mojave Desert, to Paul Alan Longwell and Edith Olive Blackley. After the war, her family moved back to the Pasadena area, where she graduated from San Gabriel High School.

Jean always planned to be a doctor. She studied microbiology at the University of California, Riverside, married Alston Lundgren in 1966, and graduated with her bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1967. She deferred her med-school dream after her marriage, working instead as a systems engineer for IBM for many years at a variety of locations, ultimately ending up in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She studied medicine at the University of Minnesota, graduating with her M.D. in 1980 before completing her family-practice residency at Methodist Hospital in the Twin Cities area.

Jean practiced medicine for over 30 years at a variety of clinics, including Eden Prairie Family Physicians, which she founded and operated with then-husband Alston. She moved back to California in the early 2000s to tend her ailing parents and was able to pursue another deferred dream: operating a mobile clinic for undocumented Californians, even when it meant facing down militiamen who accosted her clinic in the California back country. One of her mottos, which she shared with her many medical providers after her surprise cancer diagnosis in 2023, was, “Listen to your patients.”

Jean fully retired in 2010 and moved to Lincoln City on the Oregon Coast, where she lived until her cancer diagnosis brought her to be near her daughter’s family in Klamath Falls. During her retirement, Jean traveled widely, both abroad and domestically. One of her favorite destinations was Yellowstone National Park. She was devoted to her many friends, some lifelong, with whom she enjoyed traveling, corresponding, laughing, and drinking champagne.

Jean was preceded in death by her parents, Paul and Edith, and her brother, James Longwell. She is survived by her children, Poul (Rachel) of Salem and Kari (Jessamyn) of Klamath Falls, along with her grandchildren and stepgrandchild. A celebration of life with family and friends will happen this spring.