After a weekend surrounded by loving family, Jill passed peacefully in her home on December 18th, 2023 after a decade-long battle with early-onset dementia. Jill’s story began in Grandview, Idaho on October 24th, 1957 when she was born to her parents, Elaine and Robert Jones, as their youngest child and only daughter.
As the sister to two rowdy older brothers, Rory and Scott, Jill – at a young age – developed an irrepressible sense of her own competency and a wildly intrepid spirit, fueled by a tremendous energy that she would become known for all of her life. As a child she was active, competitive and an unapologetic tomboy.
However, tragedy struck early in her life when her family got into a fateful automobile accident that killed her father. Her mother, Elaine, eventually remarried a man named Bill Wolfe who came with 3 young daughters: Kaye, Anna, and Patti.
This new, and much larger “Brady Bunch” family configuration moved to a close knit neighborhood on Randolph Drive in Boise where neighbors blended into family and Jill developed the keen sense of community that would, later in life, inspire her to provide refuge and family for those who had none.
She had curiosity about communities outside her own and so while in high school, Jill went to Mexico as a foreign exchange student. Mexico is where Jill gained her passion for speaking Spanish and her deep admiration for different cultures. After coming back from Mexico, Jill graduated early from Borah High School and started college at Arizona State, where she met her first husband and became a mother to her eldest daughter, Nicole.
Though that first marriage didn’t end up working out, Jill’s indomitable spirit led her back to her hometown where she focused on her education and finished her final year of college at Boise State University. There she met the man who called her his “Jilly Willy” and was fated to become her life mate, George Ragan. They were married in the rose gardens on a warm summer evening and together began their fledgling careers as educators, initially moving to Idaho Falls where they welcomed their son Nathan and their final child, Monica.
In teaching and motherhood, Jill had an outlet for the tremendous energy that so distinguished her life and impact on others. She was brought back to Boise by the opportunity to teach ESL (English as a second language) for the Boise School District, landing a job at the Boise Language Academy in which she taught to foreign students, often refugees, who spent their first 2 years in her class. She poured everything she had into helping these students succeed, employing unconventional techniques such as singing, dancing and art to help them master tricky subjects in minimal time. She approached their differing cultures with curiosity and respect, wasn’t afraid to be silly, and was a fierce advocate for their well-being as well as their education.
Somehow in the midst of being a superhero teacher, she was a superhero mom and wife. She was well known for her cleverness in the kitchen, always searching out new recipes for nightly family dinners and preparing delicious sack lunches for her kids to take to school, where they would often discover secret notes she had written within, full of love and encouragement. She loved to “boogey” and would coax her husband out on fun dates where they would dance the night away, laughing with friends or arguing passionately about the art of educating. She coached Monica’s soccer teams and made it to every single sporting event the kids participated in. She loved to craft and made every holiday, especially Christmas, lively and full. Always having an open door, Jill welcomed in foreign exchange students and friends of the kids, some staying years to finish out high school.
It is at the young age of 55 that her passion for teaching came to a stop with the diagnosis of dementia. This shattering news didn’t dim the bright and vivid light that was Jill. Not once did she lose her positive spirit. Instead, she continued to spread her cheer, stopping people in the street to tell them how beautiful they were, waving to people as they drove by at the bottom of the driveway and going to EVERY single table at restaurants to share one of her many lovingly elaborate acronyms: “Don’t you know you’re a GWSSP? Yes, a gorgeous, wonderful smiling sweetie pie.”
We know she is still spreading her cheer and love in the great beyond.
Jill is survived by her loving husband of 37 years, George, who devotedly stood by her side as her primary caregiver until the very last breath; her 3 children, Nicole, Nathan and Monica; her daughter-in-law, Sherika; her grandchildren, Julian and Jet; her siblings, Rory, Anna, Kaye and Patti and numerous nieces and nephews.
A celebration of life’s service will be held on Sunday, April 21, 2024 from 2:00 pm – 5:00 pm at her home.