Virginia G. Jones

VIRGINIA GOULD JONES, 91, died peacefully on April 15, 2007 with her daughter by her side in Port Townsend, Washington. She was born in Interlaken on February 4, 1916 to Dr. L. Arthur and Elizabeth Case Gould.

After growing up in Interlaken, she went to college and then moved to Ithaca to work. There she met ELTON WRIGHT JONES, an Instructor in electrical engineering at Cornell and her husband-to-be. Known almost all of his life as "Shorty", he loved mathematics, teaching and playing bridge. They were married in Sage Chapel, on the Cornell Campus, on March 29, 1941. Though he teased that he had to marry Virginia because it would take a lifetime to teach her to be a good bridge player, together they quickly rose to play national level duplicate bridge.

After a few years in Ithaca, she followed him to Tennessee, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Illinois as his teaching career progressed.

During the years in Pennsylvania, she was one of the faculty wives asked to help start the new chapter of Delta Delta Delta sorority at Penn State University. As a result, she was initiated into the sorority along with the first group of collegiate initiates. That activity brought about a lifetime commitment to the sorority. When Virginia and her family moved to the Chicago area, she volunteered to work for the sorority, became an employee in the national office and eventually became Executive Secretary (the CEO) for the organization. Following retirement, she was elected to the Board of Directors, serving two terms.

When he retired in 1971, they moved to Winter Park, Florida near Orlando. After Shorty died in 1987, Virginia remained in their home until June 2002 when she moved in with her daughter and son-in-law.

Virginia is survived by her daughter, Casey, and her two step-sons and their families. She was preceded in death by her husband, her son Arthur Durand (Randy) Jones and her sister, Norma Gould Harper.

Although official papers would show she spent most of her life as a resident of some other place, she was a life member of the Interlaken Historical Society and her love of Interlaken lasted all her life. She never missed an opportunity to spend time at the lake and visit old friends.

An informal graveside memorial service will be held at Lakeview Cemetery at 10:00 am on Saturday, June 23. The ashes of Virginia and Shorty will be placed together in a grave in the Gould plot with members of Virginia's family who have preceded her in death.

Virginia's favorite clothes were blue jeans, which she preferred to wear with her feet propped up on the porch railing at the family cottage on the lake. Shorty too preferred casual clothes and simple pleasures. So, in recognition of their joint preference for casual dressing and casual living, please feel free to honor their memory and attend in casual clothes if you wish.

The family have entrusted arrangements to the Ness-Sibley Funeral Home, 23 South Street, Trumansburg. 1-888-534-5446. www.ness-sibley.com