Marguerite (Meg) Agnes Traut Jones, 79, died November 11, 2019, at Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, after a short illness due to complications from Alzheimer’s disease. Her remains have been cremated.
Meg was born on July 5, 1940, in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, to William Raymond and Agnes Iversen Traut. She was raised in a musical household and became an accomplished clarinetist and pianist. Sadly, both her parents died before she turned 13, and she lived in turn with her two elder brothers, William and Michael, in her high school years. She graduated from St. Mary’s Springs Academy, Fond du Lac, in 1958 and was valedictorian of her class.
She went on to attend the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she joined Kappa Kappa Gamma and met her future husband, Ralph Tucker Jones. The couple were married on December 19, 1959, in Fond du Lac. Meg’s university education was cut short when Ralph was appointed to the US Foreign Service in 1961. Thus began many years of great adventures. Their three children, Laura Elizabeth, Theodore Iversen and Bradley William, accompanied them to overseas postings in Italy, East Pakistan, Holland, Turkey and Australia. After the children were grown, Meg continued to represent the United States as spouse of the Principal Officer with grace, cheer and courage in postings to Italy and Ecuador, including three years spent under special protection due to credible death threats. On Ralph’s retirement in 1994, Meg and Ralph moved to Glenwood Springs, where they lived for many wonderful years, enjoying hiking, skiing and attending musical performances, usually in the company of the dear friends they made in the local 100 Club.
Service in Australia had turned the Jones family into avid birdwatchers. Retirement gave Meg and Ralph more time to search out birds and other wildlife. This they did on five continents and many islands, including Madagascar. Often this meant staying in primitive lodging, eating strange food and coping with such annoying critters as leeches. Meg took all of this in stride. At age 67, in Uganda, she trekked for 12 hours through steep, mountainous jungle: the reward, an unforgettable hour in the company of mountain gorillas.
Meg had only friends; she was loved by all who were lucky enough to know her. Her smiling face and warm spirit will always be remembered. She leaves behind her husband of nearly sixty years, her three children, her son-in-law Gary Frederick Dooley, two daughters-in-law, Nicole Marie Jones and Deborah Kittell Jones, three grandchildren, Stephanie Lynn Jones, Henry Tucker Jones, and Eleanor Claire Jones, and one great-granddaughter, Harper Elizabeth Crego.
A celebration of Meg’s life will be held at a date to be determined. If desired, friends may make memorial contributions to the Alzheimer’s Foundation, alz.org.
