Jean Oline

1931 - 2025

Jean Oline

December 12, 1931 - November 5, 2025

Durham, North Carolina - Betty Jean Oline passed away peacefully in Durham, North Carolina, on November 5, 2025 at the age of 93. Jean was born December 12, 1931 in Omaha, Nebraska, to Mary Regina (Mielak) Savage and Frank Bernard Savage, both children of Polish immigrants. She grew up in Columbus, Nebraska, and Mason City, Iowa, before finishing her last two years of high school at Gesu High School in Miami, Florida, where she could often be found in the press room, composing and typing letters, and contributing to school publications.

Jean spent the next several years in Omaha, working as a business and legal secretary while taking courses in business administration and languages, before moving to Kansas City, where she worked as a flight attendant with TWA and soon met her husband of 67 years, Dick Oline. Together, they raised their three sons over a career that took them to Taipei, Taiwan and Tokyo, Japan. There, Jean began studies in Asian art, which continued upon the family's return to the Midwest, and in 1977 she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Asian Studies from the University of Michigan. She continued her education, in 1983 earning a Master of Business Administration degree from Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan, which started her career in banking.

In 1998, Jean and Dick retired to Durham, North Carolina, where she took up photography, which quickly became a passion. She joined several photography clubs and showed her work in group and solo exhibits and juried shows throughout the Triangle area, and she managed a website of her nature and travel pictures. Jean also volunteered regularly at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill, and together with Dick, made the most of the Triangle's vibrant arts scene, frequently attending symphony concerts, plays, museums and galleries.

Throughout her life, Jean blended an appreciation of beauty and a drive to learn with a sturdy common sense and moral compass rooted in her upbringing in the Midwest during the Great Depression and World War II. Jean was preceded in death by just two months by her beloved husband Dick, and will be hugely missed by her sons Richard Erik (Chicago, IL), Mark Alan and his wife Rebecca (Chicago, IL); David Kirk and his wife Kim Lockett (Ashland, OR); and her grandchildren Alice, Janey, Erik, Matt and Teddy.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the North Carolina Botanical Garden and the Audubon Society.

We wish to express our heartfelt gratitude to the staff and caregivers at Croasdaile Village in Durham, whose dedication helped enrich Jean's final years and whose tenderness eased her last days with us.