Jon Paul LeJeune was born on June 1, 1981 in Mesa, Arizona to loving parents Toni Sauble Willingham and Timothy LeJeune. Though he moved around a lot and lived his last years in Beaver City, Nebraska, his heart was always with his family in Louisiana. Jon Paul married the love of his life, Lacey Dawn Harris, on October 17, 2015 in Kearny, Ne. The couple went on to have three beautiful children together, Arianna Gabriel Paul LeJeune, Gabriel James Louis LeJeune, and Christian Elliot Able LeJeune, and raised another, his stepson Jesse James Harris. He was a doting father of them all, including his eldest, Jabin Michael Anthony LeJeune, who is the absolute spitting image of his father. Jon Paul loved his kids beyond measure. They were his world, and he was so proud of them all. He was also proud of his stepson, Jesse, even when Jesse struggled to believe it. Jon Paul wanted what was best for him and loved him like his own, wanting to see Jesse succeed in life and be a man anyone could be proud of. Arianna was his baby girl, his snuggle buddy, his mirror image. Her faith in God, her kind giving and loving heart, her passion to learn, all come from Jon Paul. Every time she spoke about God, her Dad would beam with pride. She was his daddy’s girl and he was her hero.
Gabriel was Jon Paul’s little jock. He loved that he finally had a boy who was into sports and couldn’t wait until he could get to go to his son’s sports games to cheer him on. Gabriel inherited all of his dad’s smarts, and his good looks to boot. Jon Paul couldn’t have been any prouder of Gabe when he found out that he was reading above his grade level. He hoped that one day Gabriel would be able to skip over a grade level, just because of how smart he is.
Though they didn’t get much quality time together until the end, Jon Paul created a strong bond with Christian when he was able to stay home and spend more time with him. Little Man had gotten so attached to his daddy that when Jon Paul would come through the door he would yell, “Daddy” and run to him for a hug. Jon Paul loved his little guy and only ever wanted the best for his youngest boy.
Jon Paul’s oldest child, Jabin, visited whenever he could and his dad loved to spend most of their time hanging out together; that meant cuddling on the couch,

watching tv, playing board games, play-fighting, or listening to Jabin read a book while beaming with pride. Jon Paul’s love for his children could not be measured.
Jon Paul loved his family more than anything and always missed his mom and siblings back home. He would talk about his siblings with great praise or joking banter about who was the better looking amongst his brothers, which, spoiler, Jon Paul thought was him. Jon Paul looked up to his eldest brother and the eldest sister a lot, seeing all that they had achieved in life and wanted so much to have what they did and to be seen as successful as them. In many ways, he achieved the success that he longed for when he started working at the Norton Correctional Facility in Norton, Kansas six years ago. With his job as a correctional officer, he found a bit of prestige and a way to more than take care of his family. He was so proud when buying a home in Beaver City, Ne for his wife and children, and to provide them with everything they could have ever needed. It gave Jon Paul immense joy to have the ability to provide for his family and to be able to give back to the church or those in need. He loved the outdoors, whether it was swimming at the lake, kayaking, camping, hiking, shooting his bow in the backyard, or just playing with his kids. His love for the water was unmatched and he handed that love of water down in a big way to every one of his children. He was a big fish in the ocean of life and his kids were his minnows.
Jon Paul was a unique individual with very passionate views on the world around him. So passionate, that he fought hard to help others see the world the way he did too, especially when it came to his faith. Despite the many times he felt he had fallen away from God, he really never did, he just slipped on wet stones and lost himself down a different path. If at any time you needed to know where a bible verse was, he would be able to tell you exactly where it was. If he didn’t know for whatever reason, or wasn’t absolutely sure, he would drag that bible out right then and there and find it for you. His biggest passion was God and the Bible. He could talk for hours over any subject that was in the bible or about the history behind it all, with a passion that just lit up in his face. There was no doubt he loved his God and was not afraid to share his faith with anyone. His mom even witnessed that he would not hesitate to stop random people on the street just to tell them about the

love of God. He did it because he loved to help people, even those that many had given up on, because he saw something in them that others did not. Admittedly, he had a hero complex and always wanted to save those that had lost their way.
Jon Paul was well known for his random bouts of laughter when something funny popped into his head, and his out-of-nowhere movie quotes that only his siblings recognized and knew what the heck he was talking about. Jon Paul’s ability to recite lines from movies was well matched by his little brother, Dustin, who would often shoot back with a line of his own from the same movie and have everyone cracking up.
Jon Paul loved listening and sharing beautiful songs on YouTube, like the song we will play today, called “Delicate” by Damion Rice. It was a song he had heard on the TV show “Lost” and he just fell in love with it and shared it with everyone. Another song, “Time”, by Hans Zimmer, the very last song of the movie Inception, was an all-time favorite. Not only is it a hauntingly beautiful song, but it came from one of the movies that Jon Paul really loved just because it made people think.
With his love of music, he decided he wanted to learn to play piano. He would find videos online to help teach him or watch music videos where they were playing to learn the tune. He wanted to get piano lessons to eventually learn and understand how to play better. Though honestly, he was already pretty amazing at what he already learned on his own and had created his own tune which he taught to his wife and kids. He hoped his kids would get the music bug like he did, and would want to learn to play something themselves one day, which will most likely be Arianna, who always liked to play music along with her daddy.
While Jon Paul’s siblings often joke about who is mom’s favorite, Jon Paul was always a mama’s boy and always talked about how strong and giving his mother was with admiration and love. He always said she was the glue that kept the family together. He loved her with a full heart up and till the very end.

In closing, if one was to sum up the beautiful life of Jon Paul Lejeune in three words, it would be Family, Love, and Faith. May he rest in God's loving embrace until we meet him again.