Jenny Lea Vanden Heuvel

Jenny Lea Vanden Heuvel, a mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend, designer, musician, composer, volunteer, and master of fun, passed away at age 36 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Green Bay on August 28, 2024, after battling cancer for more than two years. She was surrounded by the love of her family during her final breaths. She is survived by her husband, Dave; her three boys Dean (6), William (4), Cody (2); her parents Larry & Geralyn Harkness; and her brother, Nick Harkness.

Jenny was born on February 12, 1988, to Larry & Geralyn Harkness in Murfreesboro, TN, where they lived until she was 4. Her family moved to Darboy, Wisconsin and lived there until she was 7 before moving to Lake Villa, Illinois, where they lived until she was a teenager before returning to the Darboy community. She met her now husband David Vanden Heuvel in 2008. They dated long distance while she finished up 3 years of college. Dave drove to visit her every weekend at school and attended many of her events. She lived in Darboy until May 31, 2014, when they got married. Once married, Jenny and Dave started their life together in Little Chute. In July 2018, they welcomed their first son, Dean. Jenny gave birth to William in August 2020, just one week prior to moving from Little Chute to their current home in Kaukauna. In June 2022, they welcomed their third son, Cody, into their lives.

Jenny had a passion for music that was truly God-given. Everything in her life revolved around music, which started at a very young age when she’d have dance parties at home and listen to concerts on TV, before she started to learn how to play the clarinet at age 6. Jenny never did anything small; in high school, she earned 25 gold medals at the Wisconsin state music competitions.  She helped form a band in high school called “Mark Beck & The Leave-in Conditioners,” which she loved to reminisce about. Jenny played the saxophone in the band and the group performed at small events around town, mostly to audiences made up of fellow schoolmates, but they got up on stage and played their hearts out.

Even though music was such a big part of Jenny’s life, her love of art was at the center of it all. She drew and colored like most little kids, but hers were actually good and unique. Her adoration for art ultimately propelled her to pursue a degree in graphic design at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point. Being the forward-thinking person that she was, Jenny picked an educational path that would offer her more opportunities in the future. She selected graphic design as a major, with music and business minors. She achieved excellence in each area and graduated with high honors in 2011.

Throughout her collegiate endeavor, Jenny was involved in so many different things. She could always be found in the NFAC art department at all hours of the night perfecting projects. She made physical art displays and paintings for classes and modeled many conceptual projects. She even made a video, “Well you Ninj’nt,” where there were ninjas attacking a young woman walking through a courtyard when a young man stepped in to save the day, only to have a giant turkey (played by Dave) intervene and start pursuit through the halls of the NFAC. She produced the film in collaboration with her friend and in line with a live musical performance. She always found a way to fuse humor and creativity!

When not in the art department, Jenny could be found in the music practice rooms. Though she was pursuing a music minor, she had the talent to perform with UWSP’s top wind ensemble with students that were majoring in music. Jenny was so well-loved in college that it didn’t take much convincing of a couple of her professors to be a part of one of her music projects. People were drawn to Jenny—to create, to perform, to want to be part of something bigger than themselves.

During her time at UWSP, she had the privilege to study abroad in Europe for a semester. She often talked about the memories she made during that experience and how it shaped her yearning to see the world. Jenny made several new friends during that trip who became life-long friends. She had so many places she wanted to visit and planned to over her lifetime. Perhaps she can still see those places from heaven!

After graduation, Jenny started her career at Affinity Health System in Appleton, which later became Ascension, and she took a role as Creative Services Manager at the corporate system level. Jenny started her career as a Graphic Designer and loved her coworkers. She was in the right place with the right people. It was around that time when she started branching out and connecting with different organizations throughout the Fox Valley. Extracurricular activities made her tick! She became part of the Fox River Ad Club and was soon part of the board of directors for the local chapter. Jenny along with her Affinity team won numerous “Addy” awards for projects. Along with the rest of the Ad Club team, Jenny helped grow the local chapter into an even larger, thriving organization today. She also was a member of the Fox Cities Chamber’s Pulse Young Professionals network and was a recipient of an award called “Future 15” in 2016, which honors young professionals who are making impactful contributions in their industry and community. Moreover, Jenny continued her passion for music by joining the UW Fox Valley Concert Band and Vento Winds groups and played high-level beautiful music. At one point, she even joined a Big Band and absolutely loved it.

Jenny left an artistic touch on almost everything she did. She was truly a visionary, often having worked out an entire project in her mind before it even started.  Her creative intuition was beyond the ordinary. There were many projects she worked on with her husband, Dave, where he’d question the outcome and she would reassure: “Trust me, it will make sense when it is done.” And she was right every time. (The only times it didn’t work out is if Dave’s skill-level didn’t match up to her vision! But even then, she would alter the plan to meet his skills, and it would still work out.)  Very little held her back from seeing a vision through to the end. She always found a way. And the outcome was meaningful and beautiful every time.

Jenny loved people and loved making new connections. She was often the catalyst for bringing others together for the greater good. It appears that everything she was involved in grew legs and became bigger than anyone else could imagine but her… she always knew… she always had a plan! That was Jenny.  A few examples of those visions happened with the “Return to Nam” documentary (which captured a special and healing Old Glory Honor Flight trip to Vietnam for local veterans), Fox Valley Symphony’s “The Graphics Score”, and most recently “The Prayer Chain” at the National Eucharistic Convention. The projects and work she accomplished in the short time she was here on earth with us will now become her legacy.

Though Jenny was a hardworking, focused and driven professional and volunteer, she also loved the simple things in life. She loved traveling, camping, fishing, kayaking, photography, boating, concerts, football, music, art, and hosting large parties with crazy themes. She put her creative spin into each of those areas as well and found beauty in everything she did. To travel with Jenny was to travel with complete efficiency in a way that was exhausting but extremely fulfilling. From the start of a thought about a trip, she would go into planning mode and lay out an entire itinerary, including alternate options in the event of weather or other factors. She didn’t like to be caught off-guard—no surprises! There was zero downtime on any trip you would go on with her. In the end, you were left with many great memories (and so many photos and videos!). She loved being outdoors, especially fishing up north with her dad and brother, kayaking or hiking in the mountains. Jenny and Dave embraced her desire to explore and went on many adventures together: Hawaii, California, Montana, and most notably Alaska, where they found themselves high in the mountains singing and dancing with muskox and porcupine and hiking over glaciers in a valley. They finished the trip by camping on a beach and fishing for halibut on the roughest seas that even the captain of the charter has ever navigated. They had dreams of taking their three boys there someday and trying to relive the crazy adventure.

Since Jenny became a mom, she dedicated every waking moment to her boys. Her life found new meaning and purpose in motherhood. Everything she did was centered around her boys and creating memories for them. She never missed an opportunity to take a photo or video, and thank goodness because Dean, Will and Cody will have those special Jenny creations for the rest of their lives. Just looking at photos of her and the boys, you can see the happiness and delight they brought her! She adored her family, which never wavered as her number one priority.

How do you sum up Jenny in a few paragraphs? You can’t. She had accomplished so many things in her short life, most notably her battle with cancer. Even in her darkest of days, when it was hard to stay positive, she would somehow find a way. No one ever wants to go through what she did, but her courage was next level impressive—and the way she documented her journey was evidence of that. She wore her heart on her sleeve and would help anyone, even if they didn’t realize they needed help until she got involved. Her giggle ushered in a joy that is hard to describe, and she was a bright light in any room she took up space. A true force of pure goodness that never wavered from the path of righteousness.

To put it simply (which is hard because she was so wonderfully intricate): Jenny left her mark—a never-ending symphony. She touched so many lives, in so very many ways. Her beauty, talent and zest for life will be missed dearly, but memories of her will live on through the great work she has done and the love she shared with the world. Her boys will grow up knowing how amazing their momma was through the stories told by others.

Jenny, you’ll be forever missed. Keep sending us signs you’re with us. We love you.

Visitation will be held on Friday, September 6, 2024, at Holy Cross Catholic Church, 309 Desnoyer Street, Kaukauna, from 4:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. and will then continue on Saturday from 9:00 a.m. until the time of the Mass at 11:00 a.m.

A special thank you goes to the many amazing medical staff that helped Jenny over her entire cancer journey, especially the SICU nurses at Froedtert. They treated Jenny with such care and compassion during very difficult and painful times.

If you would like to help Dave and his three beautiful boys cover medical costs that have incurred, please consider donating at the link below. If there is money left over, it will be put towards their future education.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-the-vanden-heuvel-family?utm_content=ai_control_ios&attribution_id=sl%3A5c40c392-8ee8-4074-88c6-d81762b174cd

https://venmo.com/u/Jenny-VandenHeuvel-1