Ruth D Jones February 28, 1929 – February 23, 2017

Ruth Jean Dollahon Jones passed away on February 23, 2017, in Wilmington, North Carolina, five days before her 88th birthday. Ruth was born in New Mexico but moved to Gilroy, California, to attend elementary and high school and to marry her first husband, Charles Woolley, and bear six children.
After a divorce, she married Noel K. Jones who shared the parental role for the children and first grandchild and shared life with her for 57 years. In 1972 the Joneses purchased the “Old Castle” in New Vineyard, Maine, which became their summer residence.
Unconventional in her thoughts, tastes and sense of humor, Ruth sought out unusual experiences. She lived in Chico, Palo Alto, and Big Sur California; in southern and western Maine, and in other locales before moving to North Carolina in 1977. In addition to raising her children and supporting her husband, Ruth had worked as a nurse’s aide, ran a restaurant, and clerked in a second-hand store to benefit abused women. In New Vineyard she became an amateur historian. Her collection of photographs of old buildings and people decorate the walls of the New Vineyard Historical Society.
Ruth loved animals, sharing our home with, at various periods, dogs, cats, raccoons, a goat, parrots, an owl. Neighborhood children came to her with birds who fell out of nests, squirrels, a litter of orphaned skunks, or other critters to be nurtured. Ruth also liked to help people, especially those in need. Her spirit and heritage of compassion and generosity will long survive her, in the memories and lives of her husband, children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, friends and countless lives she touched. We love and miss her.
She is survived by her husband, Noel K. Jones (North Carolina); sister Betty Vickroy (Gilroy); children: William M. Jones (Oregon), Jeanne Jones and George Jones of (California), Robert Jones (Philadelphia), and James J. Jones (Maine); granddaughter Bettina Jones (Pittsburgh), and other grandchildren and great grandchildren. Previously deceased family members include parents and other siblings and daughter Marjery Jones Gibson.
A memorial convocation will be held this summer in New Vineyard, where her ashes will be interred. Online condolences to the family at www.AnlanticCremation.com.