[List] Obituary: Jean Mangum (wife of Bert, sister of Charlie Thomas)

[Cecil Stokes]

  Jean Mangum Obituary


      BORN 01/19/1928, DIED 01/07/2025

Mrs. Jean Marie Thomas Mangum died peacefully on January 7th, 2025 at 
Riverside Senior Living in Decatur, Alabama at the age of 96. She was 
born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 19th, 1928. After contracting 
polio at age 9, she spent two years at Kernan's Children's Hospital in 
Baltimore, before eventually being able to walk again. She resumed her 
studies and took an accelerated program in high school that allowed her 
to enter the University of Maryland with one year of college credit. 
Jean majored in chemistry and in Qualitative Chemistry class met her 
future husband, Grafton F. Mangum, Jr. (Bert). They were married in 
1949. After graduating with a degree in Chemistry she worked for a short 
time at Johns Hopkins Hospital as a research assistant.

In 1952, Jean, Bert and two children moved to Huntsville, Alabama where 
Bert, also a chemist, accepted a position in the defense industry with 
Thiokol Chemical Corporation. In Huntsville, Jean worked at home as 
their family grew to 6 children. As the children grew older, she took an 
active role in leading local Girl Scout troops, membership in the PTA, 
and began substitute teaching. She was a committed member of Trinity 
Methodist Church serving as a Sunday School teacher, participating in 
Meals on Wheels and even in her later years contacting other home-bound 
members to check on them. For her own creative development, she returned 
to an earlier hobby of ceramics and expanded into painting porcelain, 
especially birds. Her hobby grew as she participated in craft shows and 
taught others how to paint porcelain. Jean and Bert were founding 
members of the Huntsville Botanical Gardens. They considered gardening a 
way of communing with God and together they created a beautiful garden 
at their home.

Jean is preceded in death by her parents, Charles E. Thomas Sr. and 
Edith C. Sohn Thomas; her husband; and eldest daughter, Christine 
Elliott. She is survived by her brother, Charles E. Thomas Jr. and wife 
Ann; her son-in-law Warren, her daughter Jacqueline, daughter Barbara 
(husband Ed), daughter Patricia, son Grafton III (wife Julie) and 
daughter Jeanette (husband Kent), 15 grandchildren: Kristin, Lezlee, 
Jennifer, Jamila, Niki, LaLonnie, Jean, Matthew, Lara, Liam, Stephanie, 
Samantha, Ben, Livia, and Eli plus 15 great grandchildren. Jean was 
extremely proud of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren 
and loved each of them very much.

The funeral will be held at Laughlin Service Funeral Home in Huntsville 
on Tuesday, January 14th, 2025. Visitation is from 11-1PM, with a chapel 
service starting at 1PM. Burial at Maple Hill Cemetery to follow.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the annual fund of the 
Huntsville Botanical Garden in the name of Jean Mangum (http://hsvbg.org 
<http://hsvbg.org>).
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