Thiessen moved with her family to Omaha, Nebraska when
she was ten years old. By fourteen, she was already helping
to support her family by working as a dressmaker, which she
continued until ready-made dresses gained popularity. Other
than her marriage to Charles Leonard Thiessen of Grand Island,
little is known about this Nebraskan Artist, a common misfortune
with many folk artists who live and work in relative obscurity. Jean
Thiessen is the mother of Leonard Thiessen, a well-known Nebraskan painter.