Susan Jean Jansen

Susan Jean Jansen (nee Knotwell) passed away on September 3, 2025. Sue left us after 75 years of love, kindness, and a fierce dedication to her family. She was a member of the Milwaukee Custer High School graduating class of 1968. As the eldest daughter of five, Sue continued to provide care and support for her siblings while construction began on a new home for a loving, blended family in Sussex.

Sue began working immediately after graduation as a legal secretary. Throughout her life, all who had the opportunity to work with Sue came to know a bright, funny, and loyal colleague with a never-ending work ethic. She would move on to eventually take a position at Sanborn Tube Sales in Waukesha. Sue spent 40 years with her work family at Sanborn, where she began as an executive assistant and eventually retired in 2019 as a pivotal team member who led all inside sales and created long-standing, meaningful relationships with co-workers and customers alike. In retirement, Sue enjoyed working part-time at Kwik Trip in Merton with an incredibly caring team.

On January 26, 1980, she married Robert Jansen, and together they made their home in Waukesha. They loved to travel during cold Wisconsin winters and spent summers creating a backyard sanctuary of beauty and peace. Sue loved music and best expressed her faith as a member of church choirs, where she frequently sang surrounded by family members and led by her mother, Jean Schiellack, both at Peace Lutheran Church in Sussex and finally at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church in Pewaukee.

Sue faced many health issues in her life with great bravery and a consistent reminder to all of us on the importance of maintaining hope while always sharing her heart with us during life's biggest storms. She was forever her siblings' cheerleaduer, protector, and best friend. She was a doting aunt who celebrated each new child that came into our family with infectious joy and pride. Sue's compassion extended to all animals, but she particularly adored her Persian cats, for whom she always provided a loving and playful home.

Sue was preceded in death by her husband in 2020 and her beloved brother, Mark Knotwell, who was taken by an accident in 1968 at the age of 17. She was the beloved daughter of Jean Schiellack and a special grandchild of Ella and Raymond Horneck and Clara and George Schiellack. Sue also experienced the loss of her infant niece, Ella Fullerton. She is survived by her father, Robert Schiellack, siblings Jay (Kathy), James, and Julie Fullerton. Further survived by nieces and nephews Danielle and Kyle Schiellack, Justin Miller, Jessica Schiellack, Brian and Brady Fullerton, and great nephew Colton.

Visitation will be at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church, Pewaukee, from 2:00-3:00 p.m. on Saturday, September 20th. Service of remembrance at 3:00 with fellowship and dessert to follow.