Jean Toms Holte Springer

Jean Toms Holte Springer was born on June 26, 1938, in Monico, WI. She passed peacefully, with her children at her side, at home in Wausau, WI, on August 11, 2025.
Jean was raised by a Christian family and her faith was the most important thing in her life. As a child, she enjoyed ice skating with neighbor friends on a lake they created by damming a river. Music enjoyment accompanied Jean throughout her life: at a young age her grandmother taught her to play piano, she sang in the high school choir, and one of her favorite school activities was playing flute and piccolo in the marching band. She loved school and was a successful student, graduating co-valedictorian (with her identical twin sister, Helen) of Three Lakes High School class of 1956. Among their chores on the family farm in Monico, Jean and her siblings cleaned, candled, weighed, and packaged dozens of eggs every week, and delivered them door-to-door in surrounding areas. 

She married John (Jack) Holte in 1958. Together with Jack's four daughters, they owned and operated one of the largest chicken farms in the Upper Midwest, near Rhinelander, WI, where they also planted and sold many acres of Christmas trees. Jean and Jack had three children while on the farm. In 1967 the family moved to southwestern Wisconsin to join a partnership owning and managing Eagle Cave and Campground, near Blue River, WI.

Jean thrived at Eagle Cave with her three young children. The first Christmas there, she met all the neighbors within a 10-mile radius by gifting them with homemade wreaths. Jean and Jack worked hard and made many improvements to the tourist attraction, including constructing several large log cabin-style buildings out of telephone poles. They also built dozens of campsites with electricity, hand made picnic tables, and nearby water spigots, along with numerous rustic tent sites. Jean enjoyed the wide variety of chores and projects and loved being able to have her kids work with her. She and her son, John, created five hiking trails, up to 10 miles long, throughout the 250 acre grounds. Jean beautified the grounds with her green thumb, planting flowers every year, and she upholstered, restored, and painted an antique horse buggy, a 12-foot totem pole, and a flag pole, which welcomed all visitors for many years.

Jean and Jack greatly improved advertising and its reach, which grew the business and attracted visitors from around the world. Year-round, they offered guided tours through Eagle Cave, with their kids and neighbor employees as tour guides. In the winter, they hosted up to 150 scouts or youth group members per weekend, who actually slept in the cave; Jean and her young daughters, Janet and June, usually cooked meals for them, sometimes making up to 400 pancakes on a weekend morning! From May to September, they hosted hundreds of campers and scouts, many who returned year after year and became good friends. Some summer evenings, Jean and Jack and their kids would join campers around a campfire, occasionally hand churning homemade custard, which Jean made with cream from a neighbor's dairy farm. When chores were completed, Jean loved to take her kids hiking in the surrounding woods and fields or swimming in the Eagle Cave lake, and ice skating or sledding in the winter.

Being a part of the local rural community was very important to Jean. She and Jack co-hosted monthly potlucks in the Eagle Cave lodge, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries with neighbors from miles around. They hosted monthly square dances in the entrance room of the cave (which had a cement floor) for square dancers who came from throughout southwestern Wisconsin, along with any campers or scouts that wanted to join in. Jean designed and sewed the costumes for their local square dance club, with a "caveman" theme. She hosted some meetings of local Girl Scouts and Brownies, helped in the local car/truck pool driving neighborhood kids for miles around to and from activities, and she even played the piano for her small country church.

Jean loved to travel. She and Jack took the family on fishing trips to Ontario, and on many other travel adventures--from Yellowstone, to Yosemite, to the Great Smokey Mountains; and on trips to Texas, California, Colorado, North Carolina, Florida, and more. Years later, she flew with her stepdaughter, Jean, to visit grandson John, in Georgia, and she traveled by Amtrak, with her daughter, Janet, to visit her son, John, and his family in Idaho.

In autumn of 1974, Jean and Jack transferred from Eagle Cave to manage the Downtown Motel, in Wausau, WI. There they bought the home which would remain Jean's for 51 years. They quickly made lasting friendships with all the neighbors, many of whom remained Jean's friends for the rest of her life. Jean turned an empty 2-acre yard into an oasis by planting vegetable and flower gardens and dozens of trees. Not long after they moved to Wausau, Jack and Jean left the motel, and Jean took a job as a Respiratory Therapist at the old Wausau North Hospital. At the same time, she embarked on coursework at North Central Technical Institute (NCTI) to become a Registered Nurse. She proudly earned her R.N. degree at the age of 41. Jean loved being a nurse, working 16 years of her 28-year career in the Rehab department at Wausau (Aspirus) Hospital. She also worked at a couple of nursing homes in the Wausau area, and the better part of a year at Yavapai Hospital in Prescott, AZ, where Jack passed away, unexpectedly, in 1983. 

Jean married her second husband, LaVerne (Vern) Springer, in 1986. Jean and Vern enjoyed having many good friendships with neighbors, and up to 40 of them came to their annual Christmas parties. They enjoyed playing cards, fishing, camping, and meeting friends for Friday night fish fry. Their travels included taking an Alaskan cruise and going to Branson, MO a few times with friends. In late 1996 through1997, Jean and Vern enjoyed daily volunteer work helping to build the Restoration Church (formerly Wausau Alliance Church), about two miles from their home. Those were some of Jean and Vern's happiest times together. Jean was known for showing up every day with a smile. 

Her pet toy poodles were special to Jean, and she could be seen carrying one with her on walks or boat rides, head peeking out above the zipper of the front of her jacket. She enjoyed painting natural landscapes and flowers, with acrylics, oils, or watercolors. She crocheted, made quilts, and sewed clothing for her family. For most of her adult life, Jean grew a huge vegetable garden, and, even in her last years, she joyfully tended her 13 gorgeous flower gardens. 

Jean is survived by three children: John (Debbie) Holte, of Post Falls, ID; June (Victor Kilonzo) Holte, of Kansas City, MO; and Janet (Don Bellivieau) Holte, of Wausau, WI; three stepdaughters: Jean (Don Mueller) Ralston of Waterford, WI; Sharon Holte of Colorado Springs, CO; and Karen Liechty of Reedsburg, WI; eight grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren; nieces, nephews, cousins, and other relatives.

She was preceded in death by mother Mary Ellen (Brooks) Toms; grandparents Sylvia (Kessler) Brooks and Arthur Brooks; father Maurice Toms; first husband, John (Jack) Holte; grandson John Anderson; great-grandson Wyat O'haver; brother Charles (Budge) Toms; second husband LaVerne (Vern) Springer; twin sister Helen (Toms) Jackson; son-in-law Thornton Liechty; and stepdaughter Charlotte Holte.

Friends and family are invited to come together to honor and celebrate Jean's remarkable life:
Saturday, October 11, 202510 AM - 12:00 PM - Visitation 12:00 PM - Memorial Service Meal to follow Service
Restoration Church 2125 Franklin Street, Wausau, WI 54403 https://www.rcwausau.org
Burial will be in a private ceremony at St. John's Catholic Cemetery, in Edgar, WI.
In Lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Jean's name to Aspirus Comfort Care and Hospice Services:Make checks payable to: "ACCHS"Mail to: ACCHS, 520 N. 32nd Ave, Wausau, WI 54401
Jean's children offer special gratitude to the women from her church who visited Jean weekly, and the extraordinary caregivers who lovingly helped in her last two years: Jodi Tessmer and Amy Martin.
Ascend Funeral Home & Cremation Care of Weston is assisting Jean's family with arrangements. 
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