John Joseph Jerome, age 83 of Belcourt, passed away Friday, July 12, 2019 at a Belcourt hospital after a long illness.  A memorial service will be held on Wednesday at 10:00 am at the St. Michael's Catholic Church in Dunseith.

John Joseph Jerome, a son of Joseph and Eva (Delorme) Jerome, was born on April 19, 1936 at Belcourt where he was raised and completed his education.  On November 14, 1964, he married Cookie (Evelyn) Dubois at the St. Ann's Catholic Church in Belcourt.

Through the years, John worked numerous different jobs.  He  worked as a Rolette County Cop this is where he met the love of his life.  After marrying the family  moved to Montana and he worked in the oil fields for a short time.  They then returned to the  Turtle Mountains working construction jobs.  In 1968 the family moved to Minneapolis Minnesota where he worked at the FMC foundry until 1976 when they returned to Belcourt.  He then worked  at Turtle Mountain Manufacturing for a number of years and then went onto the Turtle Mountain Tribal Forestry.  At this time he retired for the first time but became bored with being home and went to work at the Turtle Mountain Corporation for a short time and retired for the second time.  He then became bored once again and went to work at Alco.  He finally decided he had worked enough and retired for the final time.

After retirement his love for life consisted of fishing with any one that would go fishing with him.  He especially loved taking the grandkids and great grandkids.  He will be remembered for his great sense of humor he was always teasing someone about something.  He gave all of the grandkids and great grandkids nicknames many times not remembering their real names.

He is survived by his wife, Evelyn of Belcourt; 5 daughters, Kim, Sandy, Carla, Sherri and Pam (Sylvester) Vivier; 14 grandchildren; 20 great grandchildren; sister, Gwen (Ron) Unger, Emma Jean Jerome; brother, Parnell Jerome, one Aunt Irene(Bruce) Delorme,  2 brother in-laws Loren DuBois, Dennis DuBois and numerous nieces and nephews.  He also had many other children who would become special little ones to him who called him Grandpa.

In addition to his parents, he was preceded in death by one brother, Wendell and grand daughter, Ricanda. He was also preceded in death by his maternal grandparents John & Emma(Monette) Delorme and paternal grandparents Roderick & Hilda(Bruce) Jerome.

Arrangements were with Nero Funeral Home in Bottineau.