Jillian Laning Giornelli

Jillian Laning Giornelli, wife of Raymond Giornelli, mother of five children, grandmother to six, and great-grandmother to one, died at the age of 86 on November 25, 2023 in Marietta, GA. Jill passed away just one month shy of her 67th wedding anniversary with Ray, the love of her life.

Jill was kind, smart, loving, generous, and creative. She was the best Kindergarten teacher ever, adored by her students. A voracious reader and learner, she was inquisitive and curious about others, a champion of human rights and equal opportunity.

She was known as Gamma to her grandchildren — with the perfect reading lap and biggest children’s library, fun art projects, scavenger hunts, and fresh hot bread always on hand. She was a hobby seamstress often at work on homemade Christmas pajamas, Halloween costumes, and American Girl doll outfits. So many of her admirable traits (the most important being kindness) have been passed down to her six grandchildren, all of whom she loved dearly, and each of whom adored her in turn. She had such immense pride in all her grandchildren. By her influence and example, two grandchildren are teachers; all work in the service of others. They are her living legacy.

Jill was born in Baltimore, Maryland on November 18, 1937 to Caleb Laning, a career naval officer who would later become a World War II hero and Navy Cross recipient, and Micky Dunlap, a charming and adventurous woman who, in the 1920’s, took flying lessons, drove race cars, and was a professional dancer on stage in Los Angeles. Jill, and her older sister Judy, were devoted daughters who revered their parents.

As a Navy brat, Jill traveled and lived all over the world. One of her father’s fateful assignments brought their family to Honolulu in the late 1930’s. Four-year-old Jill’s earliest memories of green Hawaii and swimming in the ocean were soon overshadowed by her eyewitness to the bombing of Pearl Harbor on the morning of December 7, 1941. In the car with her family to get her father to his ship, she had an abrupt and confusing parting from him to the backdrop of the overwhelming sounds and sights of explosions. On the drive home, the family car was strafed by a Japanese fighter plane, making that morning an experience which would influence Jill’s earliest years and development.

Jill’s youth involved a series of moves to different cities in the United States and abroad, requiring frequent readjustment to new schools and new faces, which was difficult for her shy and inward nature. Some of the moves required lonely stints at boarding schools. But happier experiences were found at an elementary school in Washington DC, and another at a Junior High School in Newport, RI, where she had exceptionally kind, caring and encouraging teachers who influenced Jill’s eventual career choice many years later. Her early childhood experiences would make her uniquely empathetic towards young children.

Some of Jill’s most cherished youthful memories were from the years she spent living in Italy as a teenager and attending Marymount School in Rome. Her connection to Italy would grow even stronger after a family move to Newport, RI where, after graduating from high school there, she attended the University of Rhode Island and met Ray Giornelli, the son of Italian immigrants. Together they would grow a lifelong appreciation of all things Italian.