Of the 16 decades of recorded Carson Valley history, Beatrice Fettic Jones lived 10 of them. The Carson Valley native died Jan. 29, 2010, at the age of 100.
A memorial service was Friday at Carson Valley United Methodist Church in Gardnerville for Jones, who was born July 21, 1909, to Eugene F. and Alma Fettic at Buckeye near the Western Nevada College campus. She was buried in Mottsville Cemetery, near where her great-grandparents were laid to rest.
A descendant of the pioneer Mott family, who first arrived in Carson Valley in July 1851, her parents were the owners of the Fettic Exchange in Genoa. The building is now occupied by the Genoa Bar.
Jones said she wasn't allowed to go to school until she was 7 years old. She was one of the first students to attend school in the old Genoa Courthouse after the Douglas County seat was moved to Minden.
When she graduated to high school, Jones attended Douglas County High School in Gardnerville.
Jones served as chauffeur for her mother and grandmother, driving her grandmother's Ford to Carson on Saturdays to see her uncle George. In those days, before Jacks Valley Road was built, they traveled through what is now Indian Hills. Jones described the road as so rough, you would get a flat tire on the way there and another on the way back.
Not long after she graduated from high school, she married Myron Jones, whose family operated the Jones Ranch at the foot of Kingsbury Grade.
Jones moved to the ranch in 1945, where the couple lived with Roy Jones. Myron died in 1963. The ranch was sold in 1965.
Niece Starla Smith said Jones started traveling after her husband died.
"She was ready to go in any car," Smith said. Jones didn't turn in her drivers license until 2005 when she was 95 years old. She lived on her own in her house until she was 98 years old.
Smith said that whenever anyone was sick, "you could always count on Aunt Bea."
A charter member of the Carson Valley Historical Society, later the Douglas County Historical Society, Jones served as president. She gathered donations for the American Red Cross. She was a member of the Genoa Homemakers, which Myron Jones nicknamed the "Homewreckers." She served on the Farm Bureau Board.
She was a longtime member of the Carson Valley United Methodist Church, and was one of the driving forces in building the new church on Centerville. She was the only woman on the building committee.
She made candy and sold tickets for the Genoa Candy Dance and was a seamstress, who taught her craft to her nieces.
Jones founded the Retired Senior Volunteer Program in 1974 and served as a field representative for the organization for 31 years.
Smith said Jones had been there for the family.
"Everyone loved her," Smith said. "Some of the residents came in to say how much they missed her."
Donations in Jones' name may be made to Meals on Wheels, which helped feed her after she stopped driving, and the Douglas County Historical Society.
