OSAGE CITY — Emma Jean (Kyle) Thornburgh died peacefully Thursday, April 15, 2021, at her home in Osage City, after a battle with cancer. She was 90.
Jean, as she liked to be called, was born March 17, 1931, in Greensburg, the daughter of Bernice and Jesse Kyle. Raised in Greensburg, she graduated from Greensburg High School in 1949. Shortly afterward, she became a mother and homemaker. In the mid-1950s, she moved to Burlingame.
Jean worked for Hallmark in Osage City for several years. After the kids graduated from high school, Jean and Paul spent their winters in Aransas Pass in South Texas and eventually moved there full time. She loved the community of friends they met there and enjoyed fishing just about every day.
She was preceded in death by her husband of 59 years, Paul E. Thornburgh; her parents; a son, Steve; three sisters; and two brothers.
Jean is survived by her daughters, Diana van Nice (Mike) and Kathy Magarelli (Pete); her son, Kenneth Thornburgh; 12 grandchildren; 20 great-grandchildren; four great-great-grandchildren; her sister, Elsie; and many nieces and nephews.
Jean was a kind, loving and generous woman who loved bird-watching, especially hummingbirds. She touched many lives and will be sorely missed by all who knew her.
Her wish was to not have a service.
