Jeanie Wacht

Jeanie Wacht passed away on Tuesday, September 8, 2026, in Johnston, Iowa. Private family service and burial will take place at Glendale Cemetery in Des Moines, on Wednesday, September 16, 2026. Online condolences may be shared with the family www.caldwellparrish.com.

Jeanie was born in Omaha, Nebraska, at Offutt Air Force Base on January 18, 1951, to Jim and Sue O’Donnell. She graduated from Hoover High School with the class of 1969. She was a longtime member of Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Des Moines, Iowa. She met her one and only Robert Wacht in high school, and they married in November of 1969. Jeanie started working at the Iowa State Education Association in Des Moines right after graduating from high school.

In 1977, when their oldest daughter Julie was born, she left work to stay home and raise her along with sister Lori, born in 1980. One of her greatest joys was being able to stay at home and raise their daughters. She always spoke of this and how grateful she was to be able to do so with the love and support of her husband. Those days were some of the happiest and blessed times in her life, shared with her loving husband and their two beautiful girls. In 1985, when both girls were in school, she went back to work part-time at The Equitable Life Insurance Company of the US and left there in 1999 to start working for NCMIC until retirement in 2013. In retirement, she volunteered helping elderly at her church and also Mercy Hospice. Jeanie was also blessed beyond measure with her two beautiful granddaughters. They brought so much light and life back into their lives after the tragic death of their oldest daughter Julie. Jeanie (Nana) was so thankful for and proud of her granddaughters and had a very close loving relationship with them, along with their Papa.

Those left to cherish her memory are her daughter Lori (Mike) Willcox, granddaughters Julia Willcox and Madi Willcox, her surviving brothers and sisters-in-law Tom and Lois O’Donnell, Bill and Mary O’Donnell, sister-in-law Deborah (Leonard) Wallace, brother-in-law Bill (Connie) Wacht and sister-in-law Janet Wacht, and her dearest lifelong friends Marti Osborne and Susie Valentino, as well as her many nieces and nephews Shelley, Andrew, Erin, Josh, Katie, Megan, Todd, Troy and Dillion.

Jeanie was preceded in death by her spouse Robert, her daughter Julie Ann, her parents Jim and Sue O’Donnell, her brother and sister-in-law Mark and Cathy O’Donnell, brother-in-law Ted Wacht and her father and mother-in-law Robert and Leota Wacht.

The family expresses gratitude to Dr. Douglas Hornick and his kind caring staff at the University of Iowa Clinic, as well as the staff at UnityPoint Hospice.

In lieu of flowers, Jeanie’s wish was that you help someone in need and bless them. “Sometimes it just takes a small act of kindness to make a difference in someone’s life.” She also asked you to please keep Lori, Mike, Julia and Madi in your prayers.

“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love.”