Memorial
Lynnette “Jill” (Anderson) Keane, 88, mom, sister, daughter, grandma and great-grandma died peacefully, with family at her side, on June 10, 2025. She was born at Swedish Covenant Hospital in Chicago, Illinois on August 20, 1936, to Elmer Anderson and Dagmar “Linnea” (Swanson) Anderson. Mom was very proud of her 100% Swedish heritage and grew up in the home that her father built in Sauganash, Illinois, and would later recall taking busses to Cubs games with her little brother ‘Butchy’. Mom could still name the starting line up from the 1948 and ’49 Cubs.
Her dad convinced the family to move to Crockett, Texas, where she was crowned homecoming queen of her high school. Following a brief stay, Mom and family moved to Westchester, Los Angeles, California, where she graduated from Westchester High School in 1952. After a pre-nursing stint at UCLA in Los Angeles, Mom met Sterling Tuttle Keane, resplendent in his Navy uniform at Santa Monica City College and they were married in 1956 at her home in Westchester. Mom and Dad divorced in 1972 when she entered the workforce while raising four children aged 3 to 14. Not only was mom beautiful and intelligent but, we quickly learned, fiercely independent and inexhaustible. While in the workforce, she rose from bookkeeper to account manager in the Los Angeles music and entertainment industry, where her kids benefited from many free movie and concert tickets, notably Neil Diamond and the premier of Star Wars.
Jill lived for many years in the Los Angeles area, near her daughter, Kara. She then retired to Cornville, Arizona, near her daughter Karen, and later moved in with daughter Kristin in Crofton Maryland, before coming to Cedar Rapids to live near her son, Steven.
Mom was an avid book reader, enjoyed gardening, art, travel, white wine (with three ice cubes), walking, a close knit of friends, but most of all, spending time with her children and 8 grandchildren.
She is survived by her brother Jack (Carolyn) Anderson and sister Joanie (Johnny) Allen, children Karen (Tim) Cornelius, Steven (Mary) Keane, Kristin (Richard) Williams, Kara (Mark) Fletcher, grandchildren Luke, James, John, Sarah, Tanner, Linnea, Kayley and Morgan, great granddaughters Zoey, Edelia, and her third due in August. Her parents, and brother in-law Johnny Allen preceded her in death.
The family would like to thank Hallmar Village and the Hospice of Mercy for their exceptional kindness and loving care. A private family memorial will be held in Sedona, Arizona at a later date. You are welcome to share a memory of Jill at the Cedar Memorial website: www.cedarmemorial.com under obituaries