Genevieve Jones
Feb. 21, 1921 - Feb. 3, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009 10:40 AM PST
LaGrande
On the morning of Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009, at home in La Grande under the loving care of her granddaughter Kakki Jones, Genevieve Jones passed peacefully from this life. She was born Mary Genevieve Wheeler on Feb. 21, 1921, in Midvale, Idaho, to Maggie and Lee Wheeler. The second of four children, Gen grew up on a small farm with sisters, Leta and Vivian, and brother, Charles. She enjoyed ice-skating on the rivers and ponds in the winter and was a standout on the high school basketball team. She graduated from Midvale High School as valedictorian in 1938. She then attended Lewis and Clark Normal School, graduating with a degree in education in 1940. Following graduation, Gen taught grades first through eight in a one-room school at Happy Hollow, about six miles from Midvale. She later taught grades first through third at Midvale Salem School.
Recognizing that teaching was not her calling, Gen moved to Portland in 1942 to work for the war effort and got a job as a welder in the shipyards. Because of the high quality of her work, she was soon assigned to welding the most critical seams in the ship’s hull. Gen, however, believing that welding was not a very ladylike profession, rarely spoke about this experience and about the months that she later spent in a sanitarium in the Willamette Valley, recovering from a serious lung disease that resulted from the welding fumes. As many did during the war, Gen also had a second job as an office worker.
In the spring of 1945, a friend introduced Gen to a dashing U.S. Army lieutenant, Wallis Jones, who was in Portland on leave for a few days visiting his sister. Romance quickly ensued, and within just a few weeks, Gen and Wally eloped and were married in the U.S. Army post chapel at Hammond General Hospital in Modesto, Calif., on June 20, 1945. The young married couple lived briefly in Portland and then moved to Wally’s hometown of Ontario, where Wally went into business with his father at the Ontario Laundry and Dry Cleaners. A daughter, Suzanne, was born in May 1946, and a son, Charles, eighteen months later in December 1947. Once the children were both in school, Gen became a working mother. Initially, she worked in the office at the laundry and then began a long career as traffic manager and bookkeeper at radio station KSRV, retiring in 1980.
Gen was a meticulous homemaker, and although she had not known how to cook when first married, she became a superb cook, mastering the culinary arts with the same skill, quality, and careful attention to detail that characterized her approach to life. Gen and Wally spent nearly sixty years together, living life fully, enjoying travel, fishing, reading, dancing, playing bridge, and socializing with friends. Once retired, they spent three months each winter in their travel trailer in Chula Vista, Calif., enjoying the sunny weather and expanding their circle of friends. Following Wally’s death in June 2005, Gen moved to La Grande, Oregon, where her son Charles lives.
Gen spent the last three years in a new home in La Grande. Her granddaughter, Kakki, lived with her and was her primary caregiver and dearest friend. Ferris the cat was her faithful companion. Though getting out and about became increasingly more difficult because of emphysema and congestive heart failure, Gen was able to enjoy family vacations on the Oregon coast twice a year, and in 2007, she made a memorable two-week motorhome trip to visit granddaughter McKenna in Portland, brother Charles Wheeler in Tacoma, and sister Leta Hilty in Bellingham.
In 2008, Gen received recognition for 60 years’ membership in Chapter EB of P. E.O. in Ontario. Described by many who knew her as a woman of elegance and graciousness, Genevieve remained a beautiful and loving woman with a positive outlook to the end of her life.
Genevieve Jones was preceded in death by her husband, Wallis Jones, and by her sister, Vivian McClure.
She is survived by her daughter, Suzi Jones, of Anchorage, Alaska; her son, Charles Jones, of La Grande; granddaughter, McKenna Jones, of Portland; granddaughter, Kakki Jones, of La Grande; sister Leta Hilty, Bellingham, Wash.; and brother Charles Wheeler, Tacoma, Wash.; as well as many nieces and nephews.
A memorial service and luncheon will held at 11 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009, at the Bethany Presbyterian Church in Ontario. A memorial dinner was held in her honor at her home in La Grande on Sunday, Feb. 8, 2009.
