Pearl E Jones Obituary (1926 - 2017)

Pearl E. Jones, 91 of Mt. Zion. IL went to be with her Lord and Savior at 5:40 a.m., April 13, 2017. A service to celebrate Pearls life will be held at 7:00 p.m., Monday, April 17, 2017, at St. Pauls Lutheran Church, Decatur, IL. The family will receive friends for visitation beginning at 5:00 p.m. until service time at the church. Dawson & Wikoff Funeral Home, Mt. Zion is assisting the family with arrangements. Memorials may be made to St. Pauls Lutheran Church. Messages of condolence may be sent to the family at www.dawson-wikoff.com. Pearl was born in Watertown, WI on March 8, 1926. Pearl Evelyn Jones was the only child of Earnest and Ada (Kading) Behling. Pearl, along with her family, attended Immanuel Lutheran Church, and in her formative years attended Immanuel Lutheran parochial school. She was a graduate of Watertown High School, and married her high school sweetheart, Stanley T. Jones, on April 7, 1945. Pearl and Stanley lived in Ixonia, Wisconsin, and owned Jones Implement, but moved to Auburn, Illinois, in 1964. Pearl was employed by Goldblatts Dept Store and worked in the office of their Springfield, Illinois, store for ten years; after moving to Mt. Zion, Illinois, she transferred to the Goldblatt's Decatur, Illinois, store. Following the closure of Goldblatt's in Decatur, Pearl entered the employment of Decatur Memorial Hospital working in Barnes Lobby as the hospital's receptionist for ten years before retiring. Pearl and Stanley were members of St Pauls Lutheran Church in Decatur, Illinois, where both were involved in volunteer work. A graceful woman with deep principles, her interests were sharing her faith and the hope we have in Jesus Christ to the many that seemed to gravitate to her in times of need. Her earthly pleasures found their focus in Nascar Racing and the Green Bay Packers. As a devoted mother, she often played baseball with the neighborhood kids in her long skirt, and was even seen on the baseball diamond at Our Lady of Lourdes School playing baseball in her late sixties. She was known as the "Queen of Baseball" and could she pitch. Pearl was preceded in death by her parents and husband and is survived by her two children: Thomas Stanley Jones and his wife Mary, and her daughter Pamela Ann Jones Althoff and her husband Jeff. In addition, her grandchildren, Chris Hoard (Jan), Garrett Jones (Kristal), Allison Jones, Mark Althoff, Stephanie Althoff Onyun (Mike), Charleen Althoff, and her great grandchildren, Taylor Hoard, Austan Hoard, Christian Althoff, Caleb Jones, and Callen Jones. "My family is my life. The Lord was so good to bless me with a wonderful family and a Godly husband of sixty-seven years, and wonderful loving children", she would exclaim at the great number of holiday feasts and family gatherings that were always celebrated at her home. We will greatly miss her spunkiness and humor as well as her life lessons and the joy she shared with all who knew her.