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Jean Lessor was born on a farm eight miles north of Tomah, and for over eight decades she has continued to call the Tomah area home.

Lessor, who turned 89 on Friday, currently resides in downtown Tomah, and she has made a life for herself that education, writing, family and community have been a major part of.

Lessor says that she always wanted to be a nurse growing up, but after graduating from high school, she opted to train to be a teacher so she could remain in Tomah.

“I was always going to be a nurse, and even the cats and everyone had to put up with me if they didn’t feel well,” Lessor said. “But I could stay in Tomah for teacher’s training, so that is what I did.”

Lessor taught in local country schools for 10 years, where she taught a number of subjects. Lessor says that she loved working with kids and meeting families and she also enjoyed learning as she taught.

“We followed a Wisconsin course of study every year and there were certain subjects we had to teach, and you would have quite a background after teaching famous paintings and poems,” Lessor said. “It was great to give those youngsters an insight to possibilities.”

After a decade as a teacher, Lessor took 10 years off to be with her husband and children. Lessor has a daughter who currently resides in Minneapolis and her son is Tomah Police Chief Chris Anderson.

Lessor went back to teaching as a substitute in the mid-1950s, and eventually went back to full time teaching in 1956. She taught at the Miller School in Tomah her final ten years of teaching before retiring in 1973, and the children and meeting new families remained her favorite aspect of her career.

“I got to meet so many youngsters, and I met a lot of families,” Lessor said. “The people are the best part.”

Nearly five years into her retirement, Lessor helped start the Monroe County Area Retired Educators program with a friend, and two years after bringing a chapter to Monroe County, Tomah hosted the Retired Educators state meeting.

“My friend taught in La Crosse, and they had a retired teachers’ program, and we thought Tomah should have one so we started it, and I still attend,” Lessor said. “My friend Kathleen Arcuri helped start the program, and as inexperienced as we were, we hosted the state meeting.”

Lessor is also a member of the Monroe County Historical Society and the Writers’ Group. The Writers’ Group is a group of people that meet to share each others writings. It started out as a class at Western Wisconsin Technical College, where a group would meet to share writings and according to Lessor, when the class ended they kept meeting.

“We enjoyed it so much that when the class was over, the seven or eight of us kept on meeting,” Lessor said. “We have lost some people and gained some people along the way, and I have made some very good friends.”

Lessor and the rest of the Writers’ Group doesn’t write about any specific subject for their meetings. For Lessor, she enjoys writing about her memories.

“We write about whatever we like and however we like, and there is never any critiquing,” Lessor said. “I have no favorite subject. I write a lot about growing up and family histories. I like to write about stuff I would like my kids to remember.”

Lessor’s favorite part of the Writers’ Group, as was her favorite part about being an educator, is the people. She says she always likes to meet new people and make new memories, and she doesn’t think she will ever run out of stuff to write about.

“I will always have something to write about,” Lessor said. “I have had a lot of good experiences and there is a lot of story telling in my family.