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, in her home in Wausau, WI, on August 11, 2025.
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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 her throughout her life: her grandmother taught her to play piano, she sang in the high school choir, and playing flute and piccolo in the marching band was one of her favorite school activities. 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. Along with working on the family farm in Monico, she and her siblings candled, cleaned, and delivered eggs, 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. Jean and her son, John, created five hiking trails, up to 10 miles long, throughout the 250 acre grounds. Jean and Jack greatly improved advertising and its reach, which attracted visitors from around the world. Year-round, they (along with employees from the neighborhood) offered guided tours through Eagle Cave. 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. Jean designed and sewed the costumes for their local square dance club, as well as sewing clothing for her family. She upholstered, restored, and painted a decades-old buggy and 12-foot totem pole which, for many years, welcomed visitors at the entrance of Eagle Cave. 

She was active in the local rural community. She and Jack co-hosted monthly potlucks in the Eagle Cave lodge, celebrating birthdays and anniversaries of all the 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 hosted some meetings of local Girl Scouts and Brownies, helped the local car/truck pool drive neighbors 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 stepdaughter, Jean, to visit grandson John in Georgia, and she traveled by Amtrak, with daughter Janet, to visit son John and 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 are still Jean's friends. 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 and 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 worked most of a year 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 friends and 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 a cruise to Alaska and going to Branson, MO a few times with friends. In 1996-1997, 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 here 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. For most of her adult life, she 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 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, and other relatives.

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

• Friends and family are invited to come together to honor and celebrate Jean's remarkable life:
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• Saturday, October 11, 2025
• 10 AM - 12:00 PM - Visitation 
• 12:00 PM - Memorial Service 
• Meal following 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 that 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. 
• Condolences may be shared at www.ascendweston.org.