Life-long Love of Music leads to Lasting Gift to YourClassical
Mar 30, 2026
Jean Sanford Replinger, age 96, of Marshall, Minnesota, lived life with passion, gratitude, and generosity. Jean passed away in 2024, and her family and friends kindly shared her story of a music-centered life and her significant estate gift to MPR YourClassical.
At the heart of Jean’s life was a passion for connecting people through music, the outdoors, and teaching.
Jean’s son, Eric, tells the story of how she came to be his stepmother. Eric’s birth mother died of a stroke when he was just 9 months old. When his father moved to Ohio for work, he became active with the Columbus Council of the American Youth Hostels, now called Outdoor Pursuits. Jean was directing the Outdoor Education Center at Antioch College. The Center was also a youth hostel. Eric’s dad stayed there and met Jean. “Dad joked he was looking for a blond with a yacht and found a redhead with two canoes.”
Growing up in Ladysmith, WI, Jean expressed a deep affinity for music. Jean played the recorder, tenor saxophone, and traveled all over Wisconsin playing in bands, including the Lamplighters (see photo from 1947). She started college at the University of Wisconsin Extension in Ladysmith, then went to UW Madison for her remaining three years. She continued playing in bands that traveled the state.
Jean’s career and life were marked by many firsts and innovations. For 17 years, she taught at Antioch College in Ohio, where she designed and directed the Outdoor Education Center and also established a work-study program for foreign teachers. In 1964, Jean also helped establish the Minnesota Outward Bound School for men and then designed and directed the first women’s Outward Bound course in the Western Hemisphere in 1965. She lobbied to give women the same opportunities as men to adventure in the great outdoors. Her impact as an advocate was conveyed in a documentary by Maxine Davis and distributed on public television nationwide. https://www.womenoutwardbound.com/
Jean also taught at Southwest State University, where she mentored many students. After her retirement, she discovered Rainy Lake and Mallard Island, a place of great beauty and ecology tended by the Ernest Oberholtzer Foundation. Jean led the volunteer program and served on the foundation board for 22 years. Jean received many accolades. Women Who Dared recognized her for her work expanding boundaries for women of all ages and abilities.
The one trait everyone admired was Jean’s ability to make friends everywhere and to keep them. Eric shared, “When I was a kid, we had clothespins with everybody's name on them. It started with just the family, and later, guests would come more regularly. They got the honor of having a clothespin to hold their napkin with their name on it.” Jean often said, “My friends deserve one another.” At her memorial, each person received a clothespin with the phrase engraved on it.
Her longtime friend, Sandy Rufer, shared, “Jean was authentic in everything she did. She had strong values, and she had even stronger opinions, but it was not at the exclusion of welcoming people into her orbit. She was the kind of person who enabled others to be their best selves.”
Eric sums it up, “Mom always loved MPR classical. If you visited her, it was always on. She turned the radio on in the morning, and it played into the night. Even when she moved into the hospice house in Marshall, MN, she brought a small portable radio with her so she could listen. We are so glad she made a generous gift to MPR. When I turn the radio on now, it makes me think she’s here.”