Donna Joy Jones

Donna Joy Jones, 86, passed away November 20, 2017 of natural causes. A Viewing will be on Friday, December 1, 2017 at Croxford Funeral Home from 6-8 pm. Her Funeral will be Saturday, December 2, 2017 at the LDS chapel at 1015 15th Ave. South at 11:00 am with a viewing at 10:00 am.

Donna was born April 28, 1931 to Helen (Ely) and Lavarr McCann. She grew up on the Fairfield Bench during the great depression.  She was the eldest of 5 children. Her siblings were Marjorie, her twin sisters June and Joanna, and Mike.  When Donna was 16, her father that she was very close to, passed away. This was a tragedy for their whole family, and her mother had to move away from the family farm to teach school, taking along Mike and leaving Donna in charge of her 3 sisters during the week.   The next year they bought a home a mile from Fairfield and Donna graduated from Fairfield High School in 1949.

On October 1, 1949 Donna married William Gleason Jones. She met Bill while waitressing at Tracy’s restaurant in Great Falls. They called Great Falls, MT home the rest of their lives. Bill worked as a salesman for 35 years at Bison Ford and Donna was a proud homemaker. They built a brick home in Valleyview where they raised their 5 children, Dennis, Nelda, Sheila, Randy, and Erin.  Donna was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints her entire life.  She and Bill were some of the early members of the church in Great Falls. Donna held many leadership positions in the church. She spent years of her life doing family history and in 1992 she and Bill went on a Family History mission to Birmingham, England where they helped with the 1881 Census project.

One of Donna’s greatest passions was Theatre and music. She wrote and directed numerous plays for her church and for the community, including major productions at the Civic Center for the Bi-centennial of the United States, the Centennial of Great Falls, and the Centennial for Montana. Donna was an extremely talented person. She was an exceptional seamstress and made beautiful quilts. She went above and beyond in everything she set out to do. She was admired by many friends and family and when she passed away she had a great posterity of 96.

Words cannot say how missed she will be, but we know she was looking forward to the next stage of her life and seeing all the people she loved that had passed away. She is survived by her loving husband of 68 years, Bill Jones; her son, Dennis (Jenny) Jones; her daughter, Nelda (Steve) Chandler; her son, Randy (Shawn) Jones; her sisters, Margorie and Joanna; brother, Mike; 22 grandchildren and 68 great grandchildren. Preceding her in death are her parents; sister, June; daughters, Sheila and Erin; grandson, Nathan and many other extended family.  

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