Born August 10, 1923, in Farris Oklahoma 9 weeks premature and weighing 2 lbs. The doctor arrived at the home after her birth saying she would not survive. Her dad wrapped her up and put her in a shoe box on a wood stove door making an incubator for her. She survived a difficult birth. She was the first born of 7 children.
At 7 years old, a diphtheria epidemic ran through the small farming community. Little brother Doyle 3 died of the disease. Everyone on the farm had to be inoculated for the Diphtheria. She took off running when it got to her turn. Her grandpa Richardson chased her down a half mile, brought her back kicking & screaming to get her shot.
She grew up on the farm. Went to Farris school graduating 8th grade. For high school, she rode the school bus to Atoka Oklahoma 16 miles away. She graduated in 1942 valedictorian of her class. She later earned a teaching certificate and taught first through 4th grade. She only taught school for 3 months as she did not like teaching. She then went to Ponca city to a school where she was trained to be a "Rosie the Riveter" for Boeing aircraft.
She met Claude Bowman in 1942. They married in October 1942. In October 1943 she gave birth to their first born son who was stillborn. She gave birth to Linda Vonell in March 1945 in Oklahoma city. Claude was away in the service at that time. Jewell and Linda lived through a tornado in Oklahoma City on April 15th, 1945. The tornado took out the whole other side of the street and didn't touch their side. In 1944 Jewell worked at Tinker Field in Oklahoma City where she made machine gun parts and incendiary bombs for the war. After moving to Texas in 1946 she gave birth to Clifford in December 1946 and Neil Ross in 1949. In 1951 the family moved to Menlo Park, California.
She worked at a company that made light bulbs. She later trained in electronics and got a job at Ampex Corporation in Redwood City, California where she worked on a TV camera for NASA that broadcast the first TV pictures of a man on the moon. After divorcing Claude in 1966, she married Conley Wright in 1974. They later moved to Oregon for 3 years then returned to Stockton In 1979.
Jewell has had many surgeries over the past 50 years including 7 back surgeries, hysterectomy, a thyroid removal which her doctor told her that they nearly lost her 3 times while she was in surgery. She has always been a survivor until this very terrible bone marrow disease finally took her from us at 93 years. We shall all miss her and never forget the most wonderful life she has led. She and Con became members of an RV club for 10 years and she was an avid bridge player and social chairman of Summerplace Retirement Community for over 30 yrs. She is preceded in death by two sons, two husbands, parents, grandparents numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins.
Jewell is survived by Clifford Bowman of Post Falls, Idaho, Linda Pranzini of San Jose, California, 8 grandchildren, 5 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great-grandchild.
Many close friends have passed before her. Now she joins them and someday the love ones she has left behind will be with her once again.
SERVICES
Funeral services will be held at 1:00p.m. on Tuesday, November 22, 2016, in the Evergreen Chapel at Cherokee Memorial Park, Hwy 99 and Harney Lane in Lodi, California.