Jeanette "Jan" A. Emer

Jeanette A. (Jan) Emer, formerly of Plain and Honey Creek, passed into eternal life on Friday, October 9, 2026. Jan was born on February 14, 1940, in Baraboo, the daughter of Herbert and Era (Schwanke) Jaedike, and grew up on the family farm in Honey Creek.

Jan attended the one-room Little Prairie School before graduating from Prairie du Sac High School in 1958. Jan married Les Langdon in 1962, with whom she had two sons. She worked for decades in food service, including at Sauk Prairie Schools, Lake Wisconsin Country Club, and in private catering. Jan had a gift for cooking and hospitality through which she acquired countless friends. She also had a gift for music, and played organ at her beloved St. John Lutheran Church in Leland and St. Luke’s Catholic Church in Plain.

In 1996, Jan married Bill Emer who remembered her as a teenager playing piano in a dance band in Plain. Jan and Bill enjoyed 24 years together filled with travel, deer and goose hunting, fishing, trap shooting, card games, tending to their home and farm, and good times with family and friends. Their journey together ended in 2020 when Bill passed. Jan lived in their home until 2023 when Parkinson’s disease began to take away her physical independence. She later lived at Maplewood Village in Prairie du Sac until recently moving to a care facility in Waunakee where she died.

In her final years, Jan enjoyed watching sports, games of bingo and Euchre, time with her family and Prairie High classmates, and long rides with her son, Jimmy. Just a week before she passed, Jan and Jimmy went out for lunch at a diner in Prairie du Sac, made two trips across the Merrimac ferry, played an hour at Ho Chunk Casino in Wisconsin Dells, and enjoyed root beer floats at Culver’s, all the while tapping her toes to Fifties music on the car radio. It was a perfect day.

Survivors include her devoted son Jimmy, his wife Eileen and daughters Anna and Sarah; stepdaughter Denise Hanus, her husband Joe and children Anna, Allison, William and Katherine; stepdaughter Peg Schammel; sisters Donna Grauvogl and Sharon Martin; nieces and nephews; her Prairie High classmates, and many other family and friends. She is also survived by her son John and his sons, Jack and James. She was preceded in death by her loving husbands Bill and Les, and her parents, Herb and Era.

Jan’s family thanks the staff at Maplewood Village and Bristol Hospice for their care of her as her journey came to an end.

Due to a family medical issue, a private burial will be held at St. John Lutheran Church Cemetery in Leland, and a memorial service will be scheduled for a later date.

Memorials may be made to St. John Lutheran Church in Leland, the Sauk Prairie Healthcare Foundation or to a charity of the donor’s choice.