Jeune Exolena Ellsworth -Thomas

Jeune Exolena Keck Ellsworth Thomas, 97 of Sun City, Arizona, formerly of Idaho Falls, Idaho, and the widow of Dr. P. Blair Ellsworth and Jack Thomas, both of Idaho Falls, died Sunday, June 23, 2013, in Litchfield Park, Arizona. She was the eldest of 5 girls born in Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, 8 January 1916 to H. Mehrl and Jessie Francis Silvis Keck. She graduated from Hurst High School and attended the University of Rochester in New York and received her Registered Nursing Degree from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Wilkinsburg, PA in 1937. While doing postgraduate work in Psychiatry and Neurology at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, she meet a young senior medical student P Blair Ellsworth of Lewisville, Idaho. They were married June 1939 and remained in the Chicago area for 15 months. After a month in Idaho Falls they were separated for 3 years during Blair’s service in the US ARMY serving during WWII mainly in the Philippines. After the War they settled in Idaho Falls where Blair was a family practice physician for 30 years. Jeune served the Idaho Falls community in many ways as a volunteer including president of the Idaho Falls Medical Society Auxiliary and Idaho Falls Music Club, and for years as a Girl Scout and Cub Scout leader. She has been active in the Daughters of the American Revolution and the First Evangelical Lutheran Church of Idaho Falls. Her talents include gardening, cooking, traveling, entertaining, homemaking and being a great Mother. From 1972 she spent her winters in Arizona as a Snow Bird and in Idaho as a Sun Bird. But her heart will always be at the family cabin at Cowan Shotgun Summer Homes, Island Park, Idaho and fishing and camping on Lake Yellowstone. In 1998 she married Idaho Falls businessman John G “Jack” Thomas, who had been a neighbor 50 years earlier on South Boulevard Avenue. She was preceded in death by the parents, 3 sisters, Lois Keck Long Leigh, Romayne Keck Kurpiel, Gail Keck Cutrell, her husbands P Blair Ellsworth M.D. (1996) and Jack Thomas (2010), and two grandchildren, Dwight Bowen Jr. and Tia Marian Ellsworth. She is survived by her sister Ellamae “Doreen” “Hun” Hoggatt, San Antonio, Texas; 3 children: Preston B. (Jhana Noble) Ellsworth, Santa Fe, NM; Mehrl Keck (Secelia May Williams) Ellsworth, Litchfield Park, AZ; Kayla Bowen (David) Peters , Sun City, AZ, 14 grandchildren and 36 great grandchildren. Funeral services will be held at the First Evangelical Lutheran Church (455 W. Sunnyside, Idaho Falls, Idaho) at 3 p.m., Saturday, June 29, 2013. The family will receive friends from 2 to 2:45 p.m., prior to services at the church. Burial will be in the Lewisville Cemetery. Services are under the direction of Eckersell Memorial Chapel in Rigby.