The announcement of a loved one’s passing is never something one wants to do. So, it is with great sadness, and yet also joy that she is now at rest, that Margaret Jean Price (Jean), our mother, grandmother, aunt, passed into the hands of Our Lord on April 22, 2021 at age 95. She spent her last days at Crossroads House, in Batavia, New York, where she had volunteered for 18 years.
She was born on October 31, 1925, in Detroit, Michigan to Charles A. and Isabelle R. Jackson. Jean knew she wanted to be an Occupational Therapy while quite young, and went to Cass Technical High School for Occupational Therapy in the early 1940’s in Detroit, Michigan. She continued to Michigan State Normal College (now Eastern Michigan University) and became one of the earliest OT’s in the country. She met her future husband, Arthur Burke Price, at Youth Fellowship, and they married September 7, 1948, at the Chapel of Martha and Mary, built by Henry Ford, in Willow Run, Michigan.
Jean and Arthur moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where Arthur taught electrical engineering at Indiana Institute of Technology. They had 6 children before moving to Byron, New York in 1967: Margaret Jean, Charles Arthur, David Lee, Dale Robert, Kenneth Allen and John Burke.
Jean and Arthur were avid boaters, and belonged to the Oak Orchard Yacht club on Lake Ontario. They were very active in the leadership of the club, helping to build it when it moved to a new location. Jean was the first female officer and was an honorary member until her passing. Boating was something that our family did not do, but lived. We lived on our boat, from Easter to Halloween, some years. Jean and Art would take their children on trips around Lake Ontario, the Thousand Islands, or “up” the Rideau waterway.
Jean loved to travel and she would take her family on a trip every summer. These were memorable and a wonderful way for her children and grandchildren to be together, while living many states apart during the rest of the year. She took us to the Middle East, Scotland, Canada, California, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Arkansas, and many more places. They were all places she had been to and wanted to share, or places she always wanted to see. What a wonderful legacy to leave her family.
Jean worked at many hospitals and nursing homes as an Occupational Therapist. She last worked at the VA Medical Center in Batavia, New York.
After retiring (at age 70), she started volunteering at Crossroads House, a comfort home for the dying. She volunteered there for 18 years, before “retiring” from there at age 92! She was very proud of this facility and its caring, loving staff and volunteers. She cared for residents who were in their last days, and the families that came and went. Duties could include changing beds, feeding residents, vacuuming or washing dishes. But they also included caring for family members, cooking for them, praying with them, laughing with them. Jean spent her last days there herself, and her family, who always knew what a wonderful place Crossroads House is, discovered that they had previously known little of how much love and care Crossroads provides.
Jean was a caregiver for her entire life, caring for her younger twin, her children and husband, her patients and anyone else who needed it. She was a devoted member of the First Presbyterian Church in Elba, New York, where she had served as a Sunday school teacher, Elder and Memorial Secretary.
She was a very talented lady, having skills and talents which included woodworking, needle arts, drawing and painting, and gardening. She enjoyed fixing things and was quite proud when able to “jury rig” something so that something which was not working, now worked.
Jean was preceded in death by her husband, Arthur (1979), and her sons, Dale (1957), David (2000) and Charles (2015). Siblings Isabelle Susan (late Percival) Flotte, George A. (late Beth) Jackson, and twin brother, James Jackson.
Jean is survived by her daughter Margaret (late Robert) Hayes, daughter-in-law Katherine (late David), and sons Kenneth (Ann) Price, John (Kari Simonetti) Price. She has 8 beloved grandchildren, Robert Hayes, Krystyna (Dan) Paradise, Ada Price, Heather Price, Christopher Price, Kip Price (Heather), Nata Price and Callum Price, and many nieces and nephews. Jean also has a surviving sister-in-law, Barbara (late Don) Price.
Funeral services will be held on Thursday, June 24, 2021 at 2 p.m. at The First Presbyterian Church of Elba, 23 North Main Street, Elba. In lieu of flowers, Jean has requested donations to Elba Presbyterian Church, P.O. Box 188, Elba, New York 14058 and to Crossroads House, P.O. Box 403, Batavia, New York 14021.To leave a condolence, share a story or light a candle in Jean’s memory, please visit www.bataviafuneralhomes.com.
Arrangements have been entrusted to the Bohm-Calarco-Smith Funeral Home, 308 East Main Street, Batavia.
