Frances Elise Jones Feuer (” Elise “) passed away on Sunday, April 21, 2013 at her home in Atlanta, GA at the age of 100. She maintained remarkable physical health throughout her long and well-lived life.
Elise was born on September 12,1912 in the Tempy Community of Worth County, Georgia to the late Charles S. Jones , Sr. and Rosa Raiford Jones. She was the oldest of 11 children. Her mother died when she was eight and her father married Margaret Maddux Jones when Elise was 11.
She graduated from Georgia State College for Women in Milledgeville, GA and became a school teacher. Among other highlights of her teaching career, Elise taught school to several of her younger siblings in a small schoolhouse in Tempy. Following her “one room schoolhouse” duty, she also taught school in Columbus, GA. She had many letters from her students expressing their affection for her and she kept and re-read all of them through the years. It was in Columbus that she met her husband, Si, who was stationed at Fort Benning during World War II prior to going overseas to Europe. They carried on a long distance romance through letters for several years until Si’s return from overseas. They were married on April 16, 1947 and moved to New York, living in Manhattan for seven years and then moving to New Rochelle, NY where they remained until Si retired in 1977. Their next stop was Coconut Creek, Florida where they enjoyed retirement and made many new friends. Unfortunately, this long-planned idyllic retirement together was cut short by Si’s unfortunate and early death in 1980. In 1997, Elise moved to Atlanta to be closer to her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren.
Throughout her life, Elise was involved in a broad variety of activities and interests. She enjoyed travel, sewing, the stock market, following politics, and reading a variety of books and periodicals. She was a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and was an active member of her local Women’s Club serving also as a statewide officer in that organization. She was a Sunday School teacher and enjoyed performing in community theater. She loved taking advantage of all that New York had to offer including Broadway shows and museums. Elise particularly enjoyed serving as a tour guide and showing New York City to her siblings, nieces and nephews when they would visit. During her time in Florida, she took a creative writing course and enjoyed submitting stories to her community newsletter as well as just writing for her own enjoyment. To say she had a mind of her own is an understatement, but she used this trait in a positive way to better herself and do good things for others. One of her great gifts to her son was the way she modeled and conveyed the spirit that “you should try to limit your worrying because things usually work out in the end.”
Survivors include her son, Joseph M. Feuer and his wife, Laura of Atlanta, GA; grandchildren: Jessica Elise Feuer, Michael Philip Feuer and Katherine Carolyn Feuer, all of Atlanta, GA; sisters: Maurice Reese of West Point, GA, Rosa Margaret Mitchell (Pete) of Brush, CO, and Carol Hobby of Griffin, GA; brother: Bill Jones of Marietta, GA; sisters-in-law: Jo Ann Jones of Albany, GA, Joyce Jones of Sylvester, GA, and Rita Jones of Sylvester, GA; brother-in-law: Glenn Lowery of Warner Robins, GA; and a large number of nieces and nephews. In addition to her husband and her parents, she was preceded in death by a sister, Mary Ann Lowery; and five brothers: Gene, Ed, Charles, David and Bruce Jones .
Funeral services will be held at Banks Funeral Home, Sylvester, GA on Saturday, April 27, 2013 at 3:00 p.m., with visitation one hour prior to the service. Interment will follow at Tempy Cemetery. For those desiring, memorial donations may be made to The Women’s Resource Center to End Domestic Violence, P.O. Box 171, Decatur , GA 30031 www.wrcdv.org
