Deborah D. Jones-Faris, 66, died Saturday, January 11, 2025 at home.
Deborah D. Jones-Faris, 66, died Saturday, January 11, 2025 at home. She was born February 4, 1958 in Cumberland, Maryland to Dale F. and Charleine B. Jones, and grew up in Lawrenceville.
Deb attended Lincoln Elementary, Parkview Jr. High, and Lawrenceville High School, graduating in 1976. In 1980, she graduated from Eastern Illinois University with a degree in Art Education. In 1983, after opening an atlas and putting her finger down to see where it landed, Deb moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico. She met Patrick Nee, a photographer from Brooklyn, while working for a graphics/print business in Albuquerque, and they married at a friend’s home in summer 1986.
For her next adventure, Deb took a train trip cross country, where she met Tom Faris returning from a national Boy Scouts event. A Boy Scout! Within a month, Deb moved to Garden City, Kansas, where Tom and Deb were married. Their daughter Kate was born in 1989, while Deb was in nursing school. She graduated with a BSN in 1992. Deb, Tom, and Kate lived in Lindsborg, Kansas and later Medford, Oklahoma, while Tom returned to college and Deb worked as an RN in Enid, Oklahoma and a teacher for Medford Public Schools.
Despite a challenging period of chronic illness and hardship, Deb spent many good years in Oklahoma and Kansas with her daughter and granddaughters. They were the true joys of her life. She loved being a grandmother more than anything, even more than a good Dylan tune.
In 2018, Deb returned to Lawrenceville to care for her dad. She lived with him until he needed twenty-four-hour care, then visited him daily in an assisted living facility. Soon after Dale passed in 2024, Deb learned she had pancreatic cancer. Her last five months were difficult, but she was able to stay in her family home and experience periods of joy, love, and laughter with the help of three energetic kittens, close friends, her brother, her daughter and granddaughters, and a crew of compassionate caregivers.
Deb was an intelligent, progressive, independent force of nature. She was also open and honest to a fault. When she was joyful, she beamed. If she felt disdain, best to step back and let her vent.
She was preceded in death by her parents and survived by her daughter, Kate Jones Faris and granddaughters, Violet Rae Ozuna and Evie James Ozuna all of Wichita, Kansas; brother, Jeffrey C. Jones and his wife, Mindy of Savoy, Illinois; three nephews, Austin and Max Jones
of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Rory Jones of Washington, D.C.; her dear friend, Ann Benefiel of Champaign, Illinois; and many more close friends who loved her and will miss her.
Special thanks to Lawrence County Palliative Care, Southeastern Illinois Hospice, and the nine amazing women who sat with, laughed, cussed, and cried with Deb, and worked to keep her last
days comfortable in the face of a painful illness.
Arrangements are being handled according to Deb’s wishes by Emmons-Macey & Steffey Funeral Home in Lawrenceville, Illinois. There will be no public services.
Donations may be made to Lawrence County Democrats.