JT Olson returning to native Allamakee County to share story June 29 at Old East Paint Creek
by Kelli Boylen
freelance writer
Jeff (JT) Olson knows what it is to be an orphan.
He clearly remembers the day his parents died. He was 12 year old, and his parents had been away for their 16th wedding anniversary. He was excited to be reunited with his brothers, sisters and parents.
He then learned his parents, Othello and Lora Mae Olson, had been killed in a car accident on their way back to their rural Harpers Ferry home on the Lansing-Harpers Road.
He also remembers the family members who took care of him and his four siblings, John, Jim, Julie and Jerene. A widowed aunt took care of the three oldest children so they could finish out the school year at Waukon Junior High, and then all five children moved to Brookfield, WI with their aunt and uncle, Ralph and Marie Ann Seifert.