Georgia Jacqueline Doane

October 30, 1925 – November 2, 2023

Georgia Jacqueline Doane passed away peacefully on Thursday, November 2nd, just 3 days after her 98th birthday. Jackie (as she was known by so many of her friends) was born October 30, 1925, in New Bloomfield, MO. The firstborn of Cary Porter (CP) and Evelyn Watts, she would become their oldest of seven children. All but her youngest sister Verna (Wilson) have preceded her in passing: Clarence, Signa, Clifford, James, and Richard.

As a child during the Great Depression of the 1930's the family followed CP throughout the Midwest during the summers as he worked as a heavy equipment operator building roads and dams for the Public Works Administration of President Roosevelt's New Deal. Many of the winters during her youth were spent in St. Paul, MN where her father worked in the company machine shop between the summer projects.

In May of 1942, the last month of her junior year in high school, the family moved near Kalispell, MT. Her senior year of high school was a difficult one, knowing no one and making the 13 mile trip to town each day for class. It became more difficult when her mother suffered an injury requiring Georgia to forgo many teenage activities due a high school senior to run the household: cooking, cleaning, and helping raise her younger siblings. Despite this, she graduated in May of 1943 and two weeks later left home to attend the College of Bozeman on a pre-nursing scholarship. In September of that year, she moved on to Great Falls, MT to attend the Columbus School of Nursing with the US Cadet Nursing Corp. She was not yet 18. At Columbus she spent 8-10 hour days, six days a week both attending classes and working nursing shifts at the hospital. Her first trip home was for Christmas that year, visiting the family at their new 120-acre farm near Glacier National Park. This farm would stay in the family until 2020.

As Georgia shared the story many times, it was on the train trip back to school that she met her future husband. As she boarded the crowded train, full mainly of soldiers on leave or headed off to training, she had many offers to sit on a lap or "squeeze in". She was ogled and pinched and frightened. It was a young sailor that stood up and said, "There is an empty seat next to me, and I won't let anyone bother you". He was reading The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck and they compared notes, as she had recently read it herself. They talked for the next 5 hours until she had to change trains in Havre, MT while he continued on to Biloxi, MS for training with the Seabees. She received a letter from him soon after and they continued to write each other throughout the war in the Pacific.

Georgia graduated from nursing school in 1946 and soon after moved to Tacoma, WA with her best friend to seek jobs as nurses. She was met at the train station by George Doane- the sailor from the train. She stayed at his sister's house while she waited to turn 21 to legally obtain her nursing certification from the state of Washington. On her 21st birthday she started working at Tacoma General Hospital where she would work in what would become the MultiCare group for the next 45 years.

George and Georgia were married a year later, on September 26, 1947. Their first apartment was located near Tacoma General where she would walk to work. It was in these early years of nursing that Georgia would meet some of her life-long friends: A group who gathered on a regular basis for the next 70 plus years to play Pinochle and enjoy great friendships.

Georgia's first child entered the world in February of 1950, followed by four more over the next 16 years. Ahead of her time, she managed a household and a career until her last child left for college in the fall of 1983, even volunteering her nursing skills in 1973 by spending a month in the South China Sea on a hospital ship helping Vietnamese refugees.

As the family grew so did the need for space, and George and Georgia moved to South Tacoma to be near family and George's life-long employer, Beck Lumber Company. A few years later, the two became home-owners on South 7th Street. In 1954, as the family expanded again, the Doane's moved to North 11th Street where they would live for the next 20 years. The children would all attend Jefferson Elementary, Hunt Jr. HS, and Wilson HS, with the exception of their youngest, who was in tow as the family made their last move across town following a career-ending industrial injury George suffered in 1975. Throughout it all, the family has fond memories of Sunday dinner gatherings where Georgia always made a special meal for family and friends.

Retirement for Georgia came in 1991 and her thirst for travel began to kick in. She and George would frequent his Seabee battalion reunions each summer until George passed away in 1998. Soon after, she began traveling in earnest: Russia, China, South America, and even a cruise ship adventure to Antarctica. She also often traveled to visit her brother Clarence on the family farm in Kalispell.

In 2001, Georgia moved to University Place where she made friends with new neighbors and stayed active with water aerobics and the post workout coffee-clatch. At age 91, an optimistic Georgia put a deposit on a new retirement community being built in Gig Harbor. Two years later, when Heron's Key was completed in late 2017, Georgia became one of its founding tenants. Georgia was tickled by her "matriarch" status there, and both the staff and neighbors were blessings to her over these last 6 years.

The family sincerely appreciates the friendships and concern of the Heron's Key community during these recent months. In addition, the professional, compassionate and skilled care provided by Penrose Harbor (at Heron's Key) and the Franciscan Hospice Care team was exceptional, and the family is grateful.

Georgia is survived by her loving children Deborah Doane, Ed Doane, Phil (Trudy) Doane, Laurie (Russ) Creech & Jim (Bethany) Doane, her grandchildren Michael, Dyane, Ian, Kendra, Griffin & Graysen, and great-granddaughter Alora.

She will live on as an inspiration to us all for her kind heart, pride of family and joy of life.