Jerald "Jerry" Twetten

Jerald Edgar "Jerry" Twetten, 90, died peacefully Saturday, November 28, 2020, surrounded by his beloved spouse and three children, after a brief, vigorous battle with leukemia. 

Jerry was the second of three sons born to Walter Edgar and Laurene Driggs Twetten in Spencer, Iowa, September 12, 1930. Jerry inherited a Norwegian’s love for furniture from his parents, while being blessed with a remarkable talent for appreciating beauty. This talent shaped the two loves of his life: for his wife Sandyann Story, whom he met at Iowa State, and for his life’s work as an interior designer. In college Jerry started out in architecture, but his professors developed a curriculum for him that turned into the Interior Design Program at Iowa State. Later at Twetten’s Interiors, Jerry would annually train aspiring designers from this program as interns at Twetten’s. Perhaps the key to Jerry’s career was his own internship with Richard Plummer Interior Design in Miami after his return from serving as a lieutenant in Korea. This internship allowed him later to transform a family furniture store into one of the leading design centers in the midwest. Jerry transformed the family furniture store into Twetten’s Interiors, one of the leading design centers in the Midwest. Jerry's legacy was to help families from Iowa, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Missouri create beautiful living or work spaces, interior and exterior. Ten years ago Jerry and Sandy were able to pass on the family business, now extended to Sioux Falls and the Iowa Great Lakes area, into the capable hands of their own employees. From Naples, Jerry continued to mentor his designers, as well to help customers new and old in Florida. Jerry’s customers always became his lifelong friends and they could continue to count on him for a drapery fabric or a paint color. 

In retirement, Jerry focused on his first love, Sandy, his beloved wife of sixty five years, as well as his children David (and Cindy), Jane (and Joe) Schwarz, and Walter (and Susie), his fifteen grandchildren, Mary (and Mark) Basola, Catherine (and Mike) Dybicz, Thomas (and Kathleen) Twetten, Sarah (and Alessandro) Martini, Mark and Matthew Sievert, Mary Katherine (and Brian) Bland, Elie, Walter, Maggie, Sandra, Charlotte, Peter, Nick and Will Twetten, not to mention his fifteen great-grandchildren, all of whom he loved to host in Naples. Jerry is also survived by his younger brother and good friend Thomas (and Kay) Twetten.

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