Jean Clark Deremo

Jean Clark Deremo was born January 22nd of 1929, just months before the stock market

crashed in October, to Opal and Thurman Clark in Springfield, Missouri. Two years later her

brother, Billy Joe Clark was born. Throughout her childhood she and her family would move to

many different midwest states and Texas as her father chased work opportunities during the

Great Depression. Eventually they landed in California just as she was beginning high school

and they established roots in Los Angeles where she met her best friend Marilyn Nogaj.

Jean graduated from Belmont High School in 1946 and began training in MGM's acting school,

learning to sing, dance, act, and speak with refined diction, pursuing a dream to work in

Hollywood. She held many different jobs throughout her teenage and early adult years

including usherette at her local movie theater, working at the Moulin Rouge, and switchboard

operator at the KLAC radio station where she was Betty White's co-worker. She had the

opportunity to meet and know many Hollywood personalities during this time and had

numerous stories to share, even some about meeting Frank Sinatra.

She became a jazz singer at the age of 19 with Mel Baker's band where she got her stage

name "Geni" and later also sang with Les Brown's band. It is in these jazz circles that she met

the love of her life, Billy Higgins, a jazz drummer. They were married in 1957 and eventually

welcomed their daughter Heidi into the world. Billy struggled with drug addiction and Jean did

not want to raise her daughter with that influence, so her father arranged to have the marriage

to Billy annulled. She then married another jazz musician, Charles Deremo, with whom she had

her son, Dirk. This second marriage also ended after a brief while in divorce. She raised her two

children in Carson and took care of her beloved parents.

Jean retired from teaching first grade at St. Philomena Parochial School in Carson and moved

to Wildomar in 1999. She immediately became involved in her new community as a volunteer

answering phones at the Lake Elsinore police department and as a volunteer playground aide

at Wildomar Elementary School. Soon after, she also became a dedicated volunteer at St.

Frances of Rome Catholic Church in Wildomar, serving as a catechist, parish office volunteer,

and member of the music ministry singing with both the Filipino Choir and the Youth Choir until

2012.

She loved all God's creatures with a passion, everything from the elephants, for whom she

financially supported conservation throughout the world, to her many pets, most notably her

pet turtle Scamper and every stray cat that she took in at her home in Wildomar. She was a

great communicator and will be missed by the many close friends she made throughout the

years. However, her greatest love was reserved for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Jean entered eternal rest on August 5, 2025 and will be interred at Forest Lawn in Cypress. She

is survived by her estranged son, Dirk Deremo and his children and grandchildren, her beloved

daughter Heidi and son-in-law Paul Cavazos, her grandson Michael Uriostegui and his wife

Cara, her granddaughter Brooke Uriostegui, and her great-granddaughters Norrie Rae and

Romie Jean Uriostegui.