Jeune Thomas

Jeune Exolena Keck Ellsworth Thomas, 97, of Sun City, Ariz., formerly of Idaho Falls, and the widow of Dr. P. Blair Ellsworth and Jack Thomas, both of Idaho Falls, died Sunday, June 23, 2013, in Litchfield Park, Ariz.

She was the eldest of five girls born in Mt. Pleasant, Pa., Jan. 8, 1916, to H. Mehrl and Jessie Francis Silvis Keck. She graduated from Hurst High School and attended the University of Rochester in New York and received her Registered Nursing Degree from Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in Wilkinsburg, Pa., in 1937. While doing postgraduate work in psychiatry and neurology at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, she met a young senior medical student P. Blair Ellsworth of Lewisville, Idaho. They were married in June 1939, and remained in the Chicago area for 15 months. After a month in Idaho Falls they were separated for three years during Blair's service in the U.S. Army, where he served mainly in the Philippines during World War II. After the war, they settled in Idaho Falls where Blair was a family practice physician for 30 years.

Jeune served the Idaho Falls community in many ways as a volunteer, including president of the Idaho Falls Medical Society Auxiliary and Idaho Falls Music Club, and for years as a Girl Scout and Cub Scout leader. She was active in the Daughters of the American Revolution and the First Evangelical Lutheran Church of Idaho Falls. Her talents included gardening, cooking, traveling, entertaining, homemaking and being a great mother.

From 1972, she spent her winters in Arizona as a Snow Bird and in Idaho as a Sun Bird. But her heart will always be at the family cabin at Cowan Shotgun Summer Homes, Island Park, Idaho, and fishing and camping on Lake Yellowstone.

In 1998, she married Idaho Falls businessman John G. "Jack" Thomas, who had been a neighbor 50 years earlier on S. Boulevard Ave.

She was preceded in death by the parents; three sisters, Lois Keck Long Leigh, Romayne Keck Kurpiel and Gail Keck Cutrell; her husbands, P. Blair Ellsworth, M.D. (1996) and Jack Thomas (2010); and two grandchildren, Dwight Bowen Jr. and Tia Marian Ellsworth.

She is survived by her sister, Ellamae "Doreen" "Hun" Hoggatt of San Antonio, Texas; three children, Preston B. (Jhana Noble) Ellsworth of Santa Fe, N.M.; Mehrl Keck (Secelia May Williams) Ellsworth of Litchfield Park, Ariz., and Kayla Bowen (David) Peters of Sun City, Ariz.; 14 grandchildren; and 36 great-grandchildren.

Funeral services will be at 3 p.m. Saturday, June 29, at First Evangelical Lutheran Church, 455 W. Sunnyside Road in Idaho Falls. The family will receive friends from 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m., Saturday prior to services at the church. Burial will be in Lewisville Cemetery. Services are under the direction of Eckersell Memorial Chapel in Rigby.

Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.eckersellfuneralhome.com.