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Henson Mortuary
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Booton, Helen T. |
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Cabell
County |
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Obituary
JEAN ANN GEORGE
Jean Ann Iseley George, 86, passed away on February 28, 2014 in the presence of her family at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Huntington, WV after a month long illness. She was born on July 15, 1927 in Huntington. Her father was Paul Holt Iseley of Burlington, North Carolina and her mother was Faye Gank Iseley of Cumberland, Maryland. She was preceded in death by her parents and her husband, R. Wayne George, in 2011, and sister, Joan Iseley Crandall, of Xenia, Ohio, in 2009.
Jean spent her early childhood in Cumberland where her
father was a locomotive inspector for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad. The
family returned to Huntington in 1939 where her father became
Superintendent of Locomotives for the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad. Jean
graduated from Huntington East High School in 1944. Jean came from a
family of railroaders and educators. Her great-grandfather, the Rev.
Alfred A. Iseley, was a founder of Elon University in North Carolina.
Other family members subsequently served as the presidents of Elon,
Dennison University and West Virginia University. This family heritage
inspired Jean to pursue a career in education and she received a B.S. in
Education from Marshall College (now University) in 1948 and a Master of
Arts in Education from Marshall in 1953. Jean taught at the elementary and
junior high school level in the public schools of Logan and Cabell
Counties, WV and the city school systems of Ironton and Norwood, Ohio. In
1948, her first teaching position was at Man Junior High School in Logan
County. She constantly struggled that year in Man to convince her male
students not to drop out of school at age 16 and take jobs in the coal
mines, but instead, to remain in school and complete their education. In
1949, Jean accepted an appointment at Barkers Ridge Elementary School near
Milton, WV, then one of the last one-room school houses in Cabell County.
For three years, she taught 20 to 25 students in grades one through six
with only the assistance of a part-time school cook. Teaching at Barkers
Ridge was one of the most memorable and rewarding experiences of her life.
On December 30, 1951, Jean married R. Wayne George of Huntington. They
moved to Cincinnati, Ohio where Wayne worked as an engineer for General
Electric Company and Jean taught in the city schools of Norwood, Ohio.
While in Cincinnati, Wayne and Jean had two sons, Larry in 1954, and Doug
in 1957. The family returned to Huntington in 1958 when Wayne accepted a
position as an industrial engineer at the International Nickel Company (INCO).
Wayne retired from INCO in 1987 and they remained in Huntington. Jean was
a member of the Pea Ridge United Methodist Church for over fifty years.
She sang in the Church choir for over twenty-five years, served as the
Church’s historian and on the Church’s Administrative Board for many
years. She assisted with the Church’s Boy Scout Troop 62 and encouraged
both her sons in becoming Eagle Scouts. Jean was an active member of the
Huntington Buford chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution
until her death. With her husband, she was an enthusiastic supporter of
Marshall University football and basketball and attended MU basketball
games until the last year of her life. Surviving Jean are her two sons,
Larry W. George of Charleston, WV, and Douglas E. George of Huntington,
WV, nephew, David Crandall, D.D.S. of Xenia, Ohio, and niece, Jan Crandall
of Cincinnati, Ohio, and humourous cousins in North Carolina and
elsewhere. Funeral service will be Wednesday, March 5th at 11:00 a.m. at
the Pea Ridge United Methodist Church, Huntington, followed by internment
at Spring Hill Cemetery. Visitation will start at 10:30 a.m. before the
service. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made in
her memory to the Marshal University Foundation, Inc. at 519 John Marshall
Drive, Huntington, WV 25703. Henson & Kitchen Mortuary, Barboursville, is
in charge of arrangements.
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