Srsen offers many lifelong skills

Judy Srsen is a lifelong sewer, quilter and creator, a teacher, counselor, writer and a woman of many skills.

She is known for her work – paid and volunteer – at the Owatonna Arts Center and in other local organizations. She has taught numerous art classes, cooked professionally, and tackled many projects throughout her life. She is 80, having celebrated her Dec. 19 birthday early with a party at the Owatonna Arts Center on Dec. 10.

But what few people know or remember, she was also a figure skater and taught figure skating on the river in Owatonna and in the early days of the Four Seasons Centre. She learned to skate in her while in high school in her hometown of Hutchinson and was a member of a figure skating troupe called the Polka Dots.

“We were fortunate in Hutch that there was woman who had been a professional ice skater and that’s how it started,” she said in a recent interview. The girls troupe practiced and performed outdoors.

In addition to skating in while in high school, she was an assistant librarian before graduating in 1961. She went to Gustavus Adolphus before transferring to Mankato State, graduating in 1965 with a sociology degree. She met her now late husband, Charlie, while in college. They married (she designed and sewed her own wedding gown) and they lived in the metro area before moving to the family farm near Hope.

So, there she was as she describes it, as a farm wife with a sociology degree. “I had to find a job here,” she said. And she did. She was also a 4-H leader for the Hope Hustlers.

The job was at the Owatonna State School, then for the developmentally handicapped, where she worked as a counselor, first in the girls cottage and then later for the residents with more severe problems. The State School closed in 1970. Her daughter, Laura, was born in 1969 and her son, Brian in 1973.

Her “Judy’s Jobs” list also included three years as a server at Jerry’s Restaurant, working three days a week and always on Saturday evenings. She was also the education director for the SE Minnesota Epilepsy Foundation after she developed a keen interest because of a family connection.

It was while she was working with the Epilepsy Foundation and its connection to Lutheran Social Services that she learned information about her heritage.

“I always knew I was adopted as a baby by the Falconer family. So was my younger brother. I was checking the records about family health history and was handed a sheet of paper about my birth mother. There wasn’t any real information about health but my takeaway was that I was Finnish,” she said.

She started work at the Owatonna Arts Center in 1978. Her title was secretary. Silvan Durben, artistic director, came to the Arts Center in 1977.

“Judy was the first employee in the building on a day-to -day basis,” Durben said, “and it was marvelous to have her here. We bounced ideas off each other and did many projections and planned and held a wide variety of exhibitions and performances.”

She taught classes and later was the education director for OAC. Her brother is a professional potter in Red Wing but she says she “blames” her love of pottery on Brian Kuehn, an Owatonna Public Schools art teacher.

“Everyone has the innate ability,” she said. “Art is an integral part of every being.”

“Judy is really loyal to the arts,” said Durben. “Her support and activity throughout the years has been vital.”

She has been recognized for her work in the community. In 1995, she was named an agent of change by the AAUW. In 2003, she received the Community Arts Award from the OAC and in 2018, she was recognized for her lifetime of work by the Owatonna Business Women.