Jeanette Alden Bennett Phelps

Jeanette Alden Bennett Phelps

March 10, 1929 March 7, 2022

Born in Los Angeles during the Great Depression, Jeanette Bennett (Phelps) grew into an inquisitive, playful, and intelligent young woman. She graduated at the top of her Los Angeles High School Class of 1947 and enrolled at UCLA. There she began studies in education and met her best friend, Dean Phelps. They married in June of 1949.

While supporting Dean’s career path, Jean took on the full time job of caring for their growing family. By 1962, the Phelps family was seven strong and settled in Ashland, Ore.

Over the next decade, Jean balanced their busy home while managing the office at Trinity Episcopal Church, founding and directing Southern Oregon’s original Head Start Program and completing both her Bachelor and Master’s degrees in Education. She went on to establish Ashland’s first public school kindergarten program and spent thirty years as a dedicated early childhood educator.

Jeanie was generous, kindhearted, resilient, and a fiercely devoted and loving wife, mother, grandmother and friend. Her grandchildren were her greatest joy, and she never missed an opportunity to give them her undivided attention and affection.

Jean is preceded in death by her loving husband of a lifetime, Dean and daughter, Emily. She is survived by four children: Catherine, David (Michael), Laura (Dennis), Martha (Aidan) and eleven grandkids: Willis, Stefan (Diana), Jacob (Hannah), Mila, Jarrett (Daria), Ryan, Clay, Lily (Ryan), Reid (Heather), Grace and Virginia.

There will be a Memorial Service Sunday, April 3, 2022, at 1:30 PM at Trinity Episcopal Church, 44 N. 2nd St., Ashland, Ore. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Episcopal Church Outreach Fund, at the address above