November 20, 1931 - October 17, 2019
Jean passed away peacefully at Dunrovin Seniors' Centre in Quesnel, B.C. on Thursday the 17th of October. She is survived by 3 of 4 children: June, Mike, & Linda Paley, and predeceased by son Ron (2014); 7 grandchildren: Joe Fehr, Candace, Jim, Doug, Alex & Nicole Paley, Jillian Kozuchar; 8 great-grandchildren: Lane, Austin, Brianna & Virgil Paley, Avianna & Conrad Fehr, Teddy & Winston Chappell; siblings Leonard, Allan, Robert, Ron & Mike Gibbons, Anne Felker, Judy Lamache & Ruth Johnston: predeceased by Fred, Bill, & Dan Gibbons.
Jean was born on Lulu Island (now Richmond) and her family moved north to Williams Lake in her early years. She ran away from home at 14 and landed with a foster family at Bouchie Lake. She met Wayne Paley in 1950, they married January 13, 1951, chased the oil rigs from 53-56, and settled in West Quesnel in 1957, and moved their 4 children out to Bouchie Lake in 1963. Jean worked as a B.C. Tel Toll Operator for 5 years, and when they started to automate, she went to work as an admin assistant at G.R. Baker Memorial, followed by a term as the School Secretary at Cariboo Junior High.
By 1968, her first marriage ended, and a couple of years after, Jean was introduced to Del France. That introduction changed Jean's life dramatically: she packed her few possessions and youngest daughter off to California. Jean & Del were married in Livermore, California in 1973. Del worked as medical isotope salesman out of General Electric's Livermore Nuclear Reactor. Following reactor closures and retirement in 1980, they moved north to Yakima, Washington where they settled on a lovely 5 acre estate in the of township of Selah.
Del passed away June of 2008, Jean moved back to Quesnel in 2009, and purchased a home in Southhills. The family was close, she reconnected with long-time friends, and she had the perfect space for her artistic passion, quilting. 2015 brought a change: she realized she couldn't take care of her home & property. Precipitously, she fled back to Williams Lake, and when the Seniors' Centre there didn't provide the refuge she was
looking for, she landed with a couple (private care givers) in Williams Lake. She was moved to Dunrovin Seniors' Centre in Quesnel in March of 2017.
We, her children would like to thank Faye & Jerry - her Williams Lake caregivers; for the final lap, the staff at Dunrovin for making Mom's last 20 months as comfortable as possible. Special thanks to Colleen Fletcher and Susan Miller for their personal devotion to Mom.
A celebration of Jean's life will be held in 2020 at the Baker Creek Community Hall: time and date to be announced.