Judy Allen

Judy Allen passed away surrounded by family on September 19, 2023, in Janesville, Wisconsin, following an extended illness. She was 69 years old.

Born Judith Lynn Bruett on October 26, 1953, she was the youngest child of Harold “Joe” and Ruby Bruett. She grew up in Patterson, Iowa, attended Winterset Community Schools, and graduated with the Class of 1971.

Judy married Stephen (Steve) Leroy Allen on June 16, 1972, at the First Christian Church in Winterset. The couple eventually settled in Winterset, where they raised their two daughters, Wendy and Ashley. In 2004, Judy and Steve moved to Janesville, Wisconsin, always keeping ties to Winterset.

Judy had a lifelong enjoyment of gardening, whether tending roses and flowerbeds or a large backyard vegetable garden, and she was a past president of the Winterset Garden Club. She and her mother, Ruby, would spend many days canning tomato juice each fall, and after each batch, they would sit in the kitchen drinking coffee, visiting, and tallying the pops of the jars. She also enjoyed dancing, reading, and bowling, including going to several national bowling tournaments around the U.S. with her team. She had a very special love for her Shih Tzu, Puddles, who picked her rather than the other way around.

In her working career, Judy worked for a publishing house, two attorney offices, and a bookkeeping service. But her most meaningful job was motherhood. She was very active with her daughters, who were involved in piano, dance, sports, school, and church activities, and when they grew up and also moved to Wisconsin, she found great joy in visiting them and creating a new relationship with them as adults. She loved to travel, and each summer in the 1980s and ’90s, she and Steve would pack their sleepy daughters into the car and get a predawn start for an annual road trip to see deserts, mountains, oceans, geysers, caves, jumping cactuses, and jackalopes. When the kids were grown, the road trips included Puddles, who was an excellent traveler.

She was strong-willed, loved her family deeply, and encouraged her children to be themselves, forge their own paths, and never, never give up.

She was preceded in death by her parents, sister Sherryl Van Kooten, and brother Darrell Bruett. She is survived by her husband Steve Allen, daughters Wendy Allen (Scott Giesler) and Ashley Allen (Justin Owens), sister Vicki Mease (Jerry), and many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, and friends.