Jessie (Jones) White, age 103, passed away peacefully at 3:44 p.m. on Sunday, December 16, 2018, at home in Belfast, Maine. She was born to Charles N. and Beulah (Frost) Jones, on April 1, 1915 in Mercer, Maine, where her family had been prominent in apple production in the early 1900s. She attended public school in Corinna, moving to Canaan to begin her senior year at MCI in Pittsfield, graduating in 1934.
After a few intervening years, she attended Beal College, graduating in 1939… Read More » with a one-year degree in stenography and bookkeeping, but didn’t receive her diploma until she was 99. Stories and videos about this event that give insight into her nature can be found online and on YouTube. A polio survivor from the age of 18 months, she grew up living her entire life primarily restricted to crutches, and, in later years, a wheelchair.
She endured multiple surgeries in her youth motivating her to develop a lifelong interest in natural treatments, and leading to a hobby of online research by her nineties. She worked in various jobs for a few years after college, ending up in Belfast in 1945 where she was employed as a bookkeeper by Bradbury Nursing Home and Penobscot Poultry, and eventually met her husband-to-be, marrying in 1951. She had a son in 1952 and moved with her family to Bermuda in 1953, relocating back to Belfast in 1961, then to North Searsport a year later.
She returned to Belfast in 1968 and lived there for the remainder of her life. She was a self-made master seamstress and accomplished cook. In later years, she loved to write to, email, and talk with relatives and friends and was a tremendous support to and stabilizing influence for her family.
Despite, or because of, her physical hardships and obstacles, she developed a inspiring attitude, was incapable of an unkind word about anyone, and was a positive force in the lives of those she met. Jessie/Mom/Grammie was much loved and will be greatly missed. She was predeceased by her parents; her husband, William G. White; an aunt, Mary (Jones) Currier; an uncle, Fred R. Jones; her brother, Chester W. Jones; and a stepmother, Leora (Foss) Jones.
She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, William C. and Cynthia (Gould) White of Belfast; and three grandchildren, Nathan W. White of Scarborough, Maine; Hillary R. White of Belfast; and Eben C. White of Fairfield, Iowa. A spring graveside service is anticipated at Grove Cemetery in Belfast. Her family would like to thank Beacon Hospice of Bangor and Private Home Care, Inc. of Belfast for their constant care during her final year.
Any person wishing to make a donation in her memory is asked to consider an organization working with childhood disabilities.
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