Dorothy Jean (Wrobleski) Jones

Dorothy Jean Jones (Jean to her family and friends) passed away peacefully in Napa CA on September 17, 2023.  The mother of four was 87 years old.

Jean was born on January 5, 1936, in Akron, Ohio, to Dorothy Jean Gorsuch Wrobleski and Stanley Simon Wrobleski both of Pittsburg, PA.  She graduated from Jefferson High School (Indiana) and studied Chemical Engineering at Purdue University (Indiana).  In 1956 Jean married Donald Kitts McCormick, an Air Force pilot and Purdue University graduate (Chemical Engineering).  They had two children, David Lee McCormick and Diane Jean (McCormick) Hutchinson.  In 1966, when the family was living in San Jose, CA, Don perished in a plane crash.

Jean married  Thomas Russell Jones in 1968.  Jean and Tom met at “Parents Without Partners” and both were active campers and enjoyed the outdoors. Tom had two children from a previous marriage, Donald Thomas Jones and Deborah Ann (Jones) Joy, and their union created a new family of six.

Jean was an involved mother leading both Boy Scout and Girl Scout troops and supporting her four children’s diverse sports and activities.  Always giving, Jean was a longtime leader of the Saint Margaret’s Guild, a group for seniors who met weekly to create craft items for fundraisers and outreach for Saint Edwards Episcopal Church in San Jose.  Jean enjoyed sewing and regularly sewed her children’s clothes and accessories, making everything from sleeping bags to gowns.  Once her children were grown, she became part owner of a square dance store that offered custom square dance clothing that she created.  When Tom and Jean weren’t traveling in their RV or square dancing with the Rafter Rockers square dance club, they enjoyed sailing together on their boat in the San Franciso Bay area and the Sacramento Delta.

After Tom’s death in 1998, Jean moved to the Roseville, CA area in 2000.  She lived among friends in a senior living community where she continued sewing and crafting. She attended and supported St. John’s Episcopal church.  In 2018 she moved to The Meadows Assisted Living in Napa, CA to be closer to her children David and Deborah, both residents of Napa.

Throughout all of Jean’s life transitions, she remained cheerful and quick to gift a heartfelt smile.  Jean was a wonderful, loving mother and grandmother to 11 grandchildren and several great-grandchildren to whom she was known as “Nana.”  She always provided the right amount of input and guidance to her children; not too much but just enough.  She will be greatly missed by all. 

Jean was preceded in death by her younger brother Richard Stanley Wrobleski and her parents, and her husbands’ Don and Tom.

A Celebration of Life service will be held at St. Mary’s in Napa on Sunday, October 22 at 2:00 pm Pacific Time (link to the service https://vimeo.com/event/3751649).  Interment will be at the Los Gatos Memorial Park, Monday October 23rd at 11:30 am, where Jean’s ashes will rest with her parents and her husband Tom.

In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory may be made to St. Mary’s in Napa or St. John’s Episcopal Church in Roseville.

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