Nancy Jones

Classmate Nancy Evans Jones passed away & her husband posted the following on his Facebook page pertaining to her death.: It is with profound sorrow that I announce the death of Nancy Evans-Jones, my wife of 25 years. Nancy fought a short, but intense and courageous battle against cancer. She died peacefully surrounded by family on October 17, 2015. A memorial service in North Kitsap Washington will be announced at a later date. There will be another memorial service in Ohio in August 2016, the date to be announced later. Nancy was a long-time Unitarian Universalist who was very active in St. John's UU Church in Cincinnati. In the Northwest, she was Board President and Membership Chair at Cedars UU Church on Bainbridge Island, and she was a founding member and Planning Team Chair of North Kitsap Unitarians in Poulsbo. In addition, Nancy was and ardent animal lover and gardener. I will miss her intensely. (Last year Nancy showed up early to our Friday evening mixer with her Sister. She spoke to a few of us who were there setting up & said she couldn't stay; but for those of us who did talk with her, we were glad she at least got to spend a brief moment with us that evening. Jim Rowlands)

Tribute to Nancy Jones by Virginia Lake Burroughs

I was shocked early on Sun., Oct. 18 when I read Nancy Jones' husband's (Frank Mandt) about her death on Facebook. She'd been posting fairly recently!

I remember Nancy's house, her father's "library" (he let me borrow books), and our chats - what a fascinating classmate and friend! Nancy and I kept in touch after high school, and I still have letters she wrote me from Kent State. Then, the letters stopped, we lost touch, and I often thought of her and wondered where she was, what she was doing.

When we began planning for our 50th reunion, Nancy was among the "missing," and I told Sally Montgomery Saunders how much I wanted to find Nancy. She led me to Nancy's sister's obituary, which she recalled seeing - from that, I found where Nancy lived, eventually got in touch with her, and wrote an update on her life for this site. It was SO good to touch base again, catch up on the exciting life she'd lived, know how happy and still involved she was, and I was thrilled that she planned to attend the reunion.

When our reunion arrived, I anxiously awaited her arrival - then discovered she'd arrived too early, but said she'd return. I waited, watched, asked, but she didn't show. I called her a few days later, and found that she'd gone to the Oregon District to meet one of her sisters and their conversation got involved, she couldn't leave - but she invited me to "stop by" the wonderful home/site (with all the wildlife) if/when I ever made it to the Northwest. Someday, I thought...

But that day won't come - no "reunion" for us, no walks or talks on the wonderful home-site she'd described, no meeting the man who'd made her so happy. As I read and re-read Frank's words, this song kept going through my head: "but I always thought that I'd see you, one more time again."