Jeanette Margaret (Wood) GILL

GILL, WOOD, SORRELL, MELLECKER

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 9/8/2010 at 12:55:43

The Gazette -- Cedar Rapids, Iowa
April 2, 2003

January 15, 1921 -- March 31, 2003

Jeanette Margaret Gill, 82, of 520 Ninth Ave., died Monday, March 31, 2003, in her home following complications from Alzheimer's disease. Private family services will be in Stuart, with burial in South Grove Cemetery. Jeanette's cousin, the Rev. Don Wood, associate pastor of First United Methodist Church, Sioux City, will officiate. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Jeanette's memory may be made to the Iowa Alzheimer's Foundation or Iowa City Hospice.

Jeanette Margaret Wood was born Jan. 15, 1921, in Stuart, Iowa, the daughter of William and Gladys (Sorrell) Wood. She graduated from Corwith High School in 1939 and from the School of Nursing at the University of Iowa in 1942. During World War II, she was a nurse in the United States Navy. On Dec. 9, 1944, she married Raymond D. Gill in Williamsburg, Va. The couple returned to Iowa, where they lived in Corwith until moving to Iowa City in 1952. In 1956, they moved to Coralville, where her husband started his dentistry practice. For a number of years she worked as a nurse in the eye department of University Hospitals. Here she was on the transplant team with Dr. Alson Braley who performed the first cornea transplant at the hospital.

Her love of family, especially her grandchildren, was the light in her life. She enjoyed antiques, collecting and restoring them, driving her Porsche, walking to many of the home Hawkeye football games with her husband, and tending to her flowers. All brought great joy and fun to her life.

Jeanette's family includes her husband, Dr. Raymond D. Gill; sons and their wives, Dr. Thomas J. and Deborah Gill, and Dr. R. William and Kathy Gill, all of Coralville; daughter and her husband, Margaret and Dave Mellecker, also of Coralville; nine grandchildren, Anne, Margaret, Doug, Mary, Rachel, Dan, Kelly, Chloe and Lisa; and a great-granddaughter, Madeline. Gay & Ciha Funeral and Cremation Service of Iowa City is caring for Jeanette's family and her services.