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Jarald "Jerry" Lauritzen Elvers passed peacefully on June 2, 2026, at his home in Portland, Oregon.

Jerry was born in Dannebrog, Nebraska, on July 2, 1937, to Harald and Lorraine (Lauritsen) Elvers. He attended school in Albion and Dannebrog, graduated from Dannebrog High School in 1955 and earned a bachelor's degree from Doane College in Crete, Nebraska, in 1959. In 1960, his family moved to Blair, Nebraska, and Jerry began his career at JCPenney in Omaha, Nebraska. The following year, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in Germany as a medic. After his military service, Jerry returned to Blair and began a long career with Travelers Insurance Company in Omaha as a casualty and property underwriting manager.

His work took him to California, where he met his wife, Elsa Jongens. They married in 1970 and later lived in Hawaii (where their two children were born) and Kansas City, and settled in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Elsa passed away in 2006.

In 2015, Jerry moved to Portland, Oregon, to be near his daughter, Laura, and her family. In 2022, he returned to Blair for a brief time, and in June 2025 he went back to Portland, where he was living at the time of his passing. Jerry loved his family, would chat with anyone and everyone, and volunteered a lot in Wisconsin. He was a member of Kiwanis and the Shriners, and a 60-year Master Mason in the Fraternal Order of Freemasons.

He leaves his daughter, Laura Elvers of Portland, Oregon; his son, Andrew (Kelly) Elvers of Brookfield, Wisconsin; his sisters, Janis Elvers of Blair and Saralee Ryan of Elkhorn; his brother, Chuck (Nancy) Elvers of Perrysburg, Ohio; and many nieces, nephews, grandchildren, step-grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-step-grandchildren. Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, June 20, 2026, at Grace United Methodist Church, 418 W. Second St., Kennard, Nebraska, with refreshments and fellowship to follow. For those who wish to remember Jerry with memorials, we encourage you to donate in his memory to the Blair Rescue Squad, the Blair Volunteer Fire Department or the Fraternal Order of Freemasons.

~~~Obituary courtesy of the Nebraska Washington County Genealogical Society. Newspaper clippings and leaflets on file in the Public Library, Blair, Nebraska~~~

FindaGrave # 301132604