Willie Jo Jones Tribute

My Grandmother, Willie Jo, was born in Sparta TN at the beginning of the depression. Growing up in small-town Tennessee during the hardest economical time in our countries history was not the greatest.

The first movie she ever went to see in a theater was "Gone With The Wind" in 1939.

She said the first time she ever saw her future husband, Erwin, it was love at first sight. He was her first boyfriend and her first kiss. They married in 1949, when she was 19. From there, they had five wonderful children. The baby, Charlene, was born with what would soon be known as leukemia. She passed away at just a few months old.

While dealing with the changing and evolving world,Erwin decided it would be best to move his small family closer to Nashville for better paying jobs.

In 1973, their first grandchild was born. However, a few years later would be followed by tragedy as Erwin passed away from a heart-attack.

Willie struggled through this time trying to find her way and still dealing with two children in their teens still living at home. In the late 70's - early 80's, the family had a baby boom of three grandchildren born.

Now, the proud grandmother of four grandchildren she helped her family as the support and guidance that only a grandmother can do.

She enjoyed working with her flowers the most. Even stating in her later years that the only time she smacked her youngest grandchild, Matt's, hand was when he touched her flowers.

As she got older, she suffered many heartaches and highs. While her health may have suffered, she never let her physical ailments get her down. She was always there to talk to, laugh with, and turn to when all the chips were down.

She experienced the joys meeting five great-grandchildren. She would laugh and play with them much like a little girl would.

On her 75th birthday, she had the pleasure of having dinner with 75 of her closest friends & relatives. Something that is rare for many people to experience.

She was admitted into the hospital on August 16th, 2006. For a week, the doctor's struggled to pin-point what was the cause of her symptoms. On August 20th, she had a heart-attack and was placed on a Life-Support Machine. On August 26th, our family made the heart-wrenching decision to pull her off the machine and let God do what he felt best. She died on August 27th, after being off her machine for almost 26 hours. The cause of death was later determined to be West Nile Virus.

We had a week long memorial for her, with lots of flowers which she would have loved.

She is now in heaven with her husband and her baby. We had her for 76 wonderful years. While we miss her everyday, we know she is at peace.