Ethel Jones
Feb. 6, 1913-Jan. 19, 2011
Mountain View, California
Submitted by Jim Carroll Jones
Ethel/ Mom/ EthelMom/ Aunt Ethel/ Grammy/ Saint Ethel was nearly 98 years young and passed away of natural causes. She was living in Mountain View and surrounded by her family, when she departed for her next adventure on 19 January 2011.
Ethel was born on a farm near Corsica, Pennsylvania, the third child and first daughter of Elmer Brown Moore and Sarah Jennie Hindman Moore.
She helped raise her 5 brothers and 3 sisters on the family farm near Corsica, PA.
She worked in an orphanage while attending Clarion College where she earned her two year teaching credential 1932.
She taught in a one-room school where she was required to bring in the coal for the heater, clean the blackboards, sweep and mop the floors in her spare time, before and after teaching the first- thru eighth graders five days a week.
On 17 July 1939, in her new Chevrolet, she and 4 of her teacher friends began a cross country journey. They traveled to the southern states, across Texas and the Southwest and to southern California. In Pasadena she visited with family and friends, and was set up for a blind date in San Francisco. There she met the love of her life, James Carroll Jones, of Louisville, Kentucky. They spent the day together and he proposed to her within 24 hours of meeting her.
She and her teacher companions returned to Pennsylvania through the northern United States. She continued teaching at the one-room school house, until the day after Christmas, 26 December 1939. Then she sold her car, said goodbye to her family and friends, got on a train, and rode cross country to Reno, Nevada, where she and Jimmy were married on 29 December 1939. They lived for a short time in Pasadena, California, before moving to a new home on Toro Avenue in Salinas, California.
There they were blessed with two daughters, a son, and a third daughter. During World War II, husband Jimmy worked at the airbase/airport, and they had a duckpin bowling alley business, where the blackout curtains were used every night.
Just after the war, Ethel traveled with her 2 daughters and son on the train to visit her family at the farm in Corsica. She was accompanied on the trip by her brother, US Army SGT Blaine Moore, who was coming home from the war. When she returned to Salinas her fourth child was born.
The family moved to Pacific Grove, California in 1948, first on Forest Avenue for one year, then to Ocean View Blvd, near the beach.
Ethel continued her teaching career in 1950 with the Fremont School District in Salinas. She would drive the 30 miles from Pacific Grove to Salinas each day to teach the Second and Third grades, while raising her 4 children with her husband.
She again visited her Pennsylvania family and old home with her children in 1949 and 1956, viewing the United State from the Sky Car while traveling cross country on the California Zephyr.
In 1958, Jimmy accepted a position with the new Foothill College in Los Altos. The family moved to View Street in Mountain View in June, 1959, and Ethel began teaching the Third Grade for the Sunnyvale School District, at the De Anza and then Cherry Chase Schools. And she earned her Bachelor of Education Diploma from San Jose State University in July 1959
In 1964 the family drove across the US in their new Chrysler Imperial, visiting Jimmy?s family and relatives in Kentucky and Tennessee, and Ethel?s family and relatives in Pennsylvania. The Joneses continued on to New York to see The World?s Fair, the top of the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty. And then on to Washington DC to visit the Smithsonian, the Capital, the Washington and Lincoln Monuments.
Jimmy retired from Foothill College Bookstore and Student Center in 1966, and they frequently would ?go daisy picking? in the Gold Country and other California locations. Jimmy passed away 21 January 1975. Ethel retired in 1978, when she was 65. She was the first inductee to the Sunnyvale Teachers Hall of Fame, at a surprise ceremony, attended by her family in 1989.
Ethel continued her many trips, driving cross country in 1979, visiting Scotland, Switzerland and Sweden, going thru the Panama Canal,enjoying Hawaii many times, plus three times with her family in 1984, 1993 and 2003. Yosemite in November was also a favorite destination. In 1982 she attended her 50 Year Reunion at Clarion College in Pennsylvania.
In her spare time she continued to teach or assist in various schools. She made quilts for each of her 4 children, and many of her grandkids, great grand and great-great grands. She was a member of the Palo Alto Church of Christ, Women?s League, a Masonic widow and a supporter of the California Academy of Sciences and Sierra Bible Camp. And she always enjoyed her monthly luncheons at Coco?s and The Diner with her ?young? teacher friends; and her Sunday morning breakfasts with Ed and Betty and Elsie and Donna.
Ethel was predeceased by her husband, James Carroll Jones Senior (21 JAN 1975) She is survived by her four children, Linda Jane Jones Neil Glaab (John) of Mexico; Janet Sue Jones Per Lee of Mountain View, CA; James Carroll Jones Junior (Carolen McDaniel) of Mountain View, CA; Mary Ann Jones Werley (Paul) of Utah.
Eleven grandchildren: Edwin (Balvina), Deborah (Tono), Laurel (Stacey), and Amber; Abigail, Calvin (Laurie) and Grace (John); James III (Sylvia); Cameron (Francis), Jake (Samantha) and Jordan.
Fifteen great grandchildren: Ivanna, Andrea (Rone), Tabitha (Geoff), and Mary Elizabeth; Marco II (Sarah) , Tiffanny, Ethelyn (Luis), and Keagan; Brandon and Amber; Zachery and Brooke; Sabrina and Leila; Rahner, Katriel, Keanan.
And seven (and one-half!) great-great grands, so far?: Barrett and Forte; Shelby and Jackson; Marco III; Daniel and Melanny.
She was predeceased by her five brothers, Albert Johnson, Harold Hindman, William Elmer, Blaine, and Fred, her two sisters, Mary Elizabeth Hummel (07/23/2010 ) and Nancy; she is survived by her younger sister Virginia Mae Moore Anderson of Austin, Texas, and many nieces and nephews
Ethel was the great granddaughter of William Simpson (1790-1874) and Lily Ann Scott (1800-1869) granddaughter of Lavina Simpson (1842-1930) youngest of the Eight Beautiful Simpson Sisters, and William Moore (1839-1904), daughter of Elmer Brown Moore (1878-1967) and Sarah Jennie Hindman (1881-1961).
Information from A Travis Tree On Me And Mine, by Harold Gilbert Travis, 1969.
Ethel-isms we have enjoyed: ?You do it SO nicely!? After a spill: ?There?s a clean spot of the floor.?; Her greeting when you came into her home, ?Whoo Whoo!? Her philosophizing: ?Well ? that?s a deep subject.?
Many thanks to Pathways Hospice, Alina Wright, Henry Wong, and all the others who helped Ethel.
Many thanks to The Cusimano Family Colonial Morturary, Matt, Sherri, Joe, and others for their thoughtful service and arrangements.
Please see http://ethelmoorejones.com/ , and these five sections: http://ethelmoorejones.com/guest-book/ http://ethelmoorejones.com/pennsylvania/ http://ethelmoorejones.com/california/ http://ethelmoorejones.com/teaching/ http://ethelmoorejones.com/retirement/ .
Tags: teacher/educator
