Rosemary Jones

Rosemary Jones, 77, of Amarillo, departed this world January 27, 2020, after a long and valiant battle with Alzheimer’s disease.

Services were on January 31, 2020 at 2pm in the Memory Gardens Mausoleum Chapel with Ken Branum officiating. Burial was in Memory Gardens Cemetery. Services were by Griggs-Schooler-Gordon Funeral Directors, 5400 Bell St., Amarillo, TX.

Rosemary was born in July, 1942, in San Antonio, Texas, to Dorothy and Paul Forrest, and was the eldest of eight children.

When she was very young, her family moved to Arizona, and again around age 10 to El Paso, TX, where she graduated from high school. She met her closest and lifelong friends while living in El Paso, so she chose to live there and pursue further education and employment when her family moved to Lubbock, TX soon after her graduation. A high level of education for her children was a priority. So it was this expectation that helped them grow into independent women. Daughter Kym recalled not wanting to study anymore on late nights during college, and Mom would say “Just a little bit more.” Those words, “a little bit more” continue to drive me.

At the age of 19, while ironing and watching a Billy Graham special on television, she made a decision which would become the foundation of her life – to accept and follow Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.

During her early twenties, she met Lt. Francis “Fritz” Jones after he was assigned to Fort Bliss at El Paso in May 1964. They were married in Dec 1965, in Lubbock, Texas. Rosemary and Fritz lived in El Paso until moving to Amarillo in 1975. They had two daughters who remember their mother as a gentle and quiet spirit. “Her approach and response to life provided an example for us to follow of how we were expected to treat and serve others with kindness and grace,” recalls her youngest daughter, Tamara. She was primarily a homemaker and made having a presence in her daughters’ lives a priority – volunteering at their school library, supporting the Girl Scouts and their other extracurricular activities, taking them to church and the library, helping with homework, carpooling, and so much more. “She truly had a servant’s heart; I don’t recall her ever complaining about any of it,” recalls Tamara. Rosemary later worked part time for many years, first at a pharmacy and later a jewelry store, before retiring in 2002. She was active in church and PTA, and enjoyed reading mysteries by well-known female authors.

She was preceded in death by her parents, one brother, and one nephew.

Survivors include her husband, two daughters: Kymberli of Houston, and Tamara and husband John of Louisville, KY; six grandchildren and one great granddaughter; three sisters: Linda of Spring, TX, Carol of Lubbock, TX, and Dorothy of Tomball, TX; three brothers: Charles of Plain City, OH, Tom of Pocatello, ID, and Paul of Custer, MI; and four nieces and nine nephews.