Willa Jean Jones

Willa Jean was born June 3, 1933 to CB Murphy and Essie Mae Moore Murphy in Fillmore, Oklahoma. She was the 13th child born to this family and lost her mother at a very young age when her younger sister was born. Willa grew up in Tishomingo, Oklahoma and attended school there.

She married Victor Leo Jones in Lordsburg, New Mexico on December 24, 1949 . Willa moved to southern New Mexico to start her life with her new husband. He was a World War II veteran who was completing his college degree at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. They soon moved to his farm near Tishomingo, Oklahoma. While they were trying to make a go of the farm, their first child Ronald Victor Jones was born in September 1950. Two years later, their daughter Alice Jean Jones was born in November 1952. The young family soon moved back to Las Cruces. New Mexico. He found work as a County Health Inspector and the family moved to Alamogordo, New Mexico where they stayed for many years.

Willa’s entire focus was her family. She cared for her husband and children in every way. She served as her husband’s help meet as he pastored churches and traveled in his ministry. She loved to sing and had a joy in the Lord. Willa served as room mother and worked in the PTA to support her children. She also loved to sew clothing and to create fine crochet handiwork. She was a health enthusiast who educated herself to a high degree in the field of natural health. In another life, she could have been a doctor or nurse. Willa was also a wonderful cook. Her children and grandchildren could not get enough of her biscuits.

Willa loved being a mother and a grandmother and the birth of her great grandchildren brought her a special happiness. She welcomed the three great grand daughters with joy and love, and was delighted, at the end of her life, to learn that she had a new great grandson. One of the last things she said was, Oh, I want to see him.

Willa was preceded in death by her parents and 12 of her sisters and brothers. Her husband, Elder Victor L. Jones, passed away in 2006, her great grandson Jackson David Cooksey in 2013, and her son, Ronald Victor Jones in 2021. She is survived by her sister, Ozella Dollar, her daughter Alice Jones Cooksey and her husband, George David Cooksey, her grandson George Dewey Cooksey III and his wife Stacey Latimer Cooksey and children Sophia and Caleb, and her grandson Jonathan David Cooksey and his wife Lacie Sims Cooksey and children Caroline and Hannah.

She is singing with the angels now. We will always treasure her memory.