Gwen Dahlke Jones

Gwendolyn Juanita Dahlke Jones was born in North Kansas City, MO on March 15, 1928. She died peacefully on Oct. 22, 2023. She was the daughter of the late Ted Dahlke and Edna Brixey Dahlke.

Gwen attended a Lutheran private school until her high school years when she was sent to live with her Grandmother on the Brixey Homestead, North of Chandler, which was quite a change of cultures. While waiting for the rural school bus on her first day in Chandler, the bus door opened and the student driver was Ralph Jones.

She graduated from Chandler High School in the Class of 1946. Following that she enrolled in Central State Teachers College, where she flourished while majoring in Elementary Education. She was editor of the Senior Yearbook; President of her dorm; was awarded The Alumni Award in 1948; was inducted into the honors society Alpha Phi Sigma and was listed in Who’s Who in American College Students.

After teaching in California, she returned to Oklahoma and married Ralph N. Jones on June 24,1950, the gentleman she met on her first day of school as her bus driver. She gave birth to her only daughter, Rene’ Nell Jones, in Fort George G. Meade, MD, while Ralph was on a troop ship during the Korean War. The next day Gwen and Granny began a 1,300-mile journey to Chandler, OK. This was quite a trek with a newborn, and Gwen and Granny found themselves warming bottles in diners along the way.

Gwen taught sixth grade in Davenport, OK and was recruited by John Neer to transfer to Chandler where she taught fourth grade for a total of 35 years. She was a loving and concerned teacher. She loved the color pink and had her classroom repainted every year in her favorite color. She also loved to spoil her students and a couple times a year would have special ice cream treats brought over from the beloved local grocer, Tom Bay. So many of her former students have sought out Rene’ to tell her what a difference Gwen had made in their life! “Mrs. Jones made learning fun” and another expressed her gratitude when she told Rene’ “Your Mother is the reason that I became a teacher!!” Teachers do make a difference in children ’s lives.

She was a member of Delta Kappa Gamma; O.E.S.; Chapter DP of P.E.O. and D.A.R.

When she retired, she and Ralph toured Europe and all the 50 states. Gwen is survived by Ralph Jones, her beloved daughter, Rene’ Jones Vassar and her husband Bill, Edmond, OK. She is also survived by her grandson, Bill and his wife Ashlea, Fort Worth, TX.

The family would like to thank her devoted caregivers, Winifred and Caroline.