Charlene Jones

Charlene Ronnell Hall Jones
April 27, 1945 - December 30, 2024

Charlene Ronnell Hall Jones passed away on December 30, 2024, in her home in Monroe, Utah, after a difficult battle with Parkinson's disease. She was born on April 27, 1945, near the red rocks of St George, Utah, to Lewis DeVere Hall and Rachel Farraway. She grew up the baby girl in the family – seven years younger than her sister, Sonia, and fourteen years younger than her brother, Ron. 

She spent the first six years of her life in Southern Utah, spending five of them in St George and one summer living on Cedar mountain near Cedar City. At age six, her family moved to Bountiful, Utah. There she attended kindergarten through fifth grade and spent her free time roaming the foothills of Bountiful.

Her middle school and high school years were spent moving back and forth between Bountiful and Payson, Utah, and then to Turlock, California, and then back to Payson once again. After high school graduation, Charlene attended Brigham Young University where she majored in Child Development and Human Relations with a minor in Psychology. BYU blue would remain her favorite color throughout her life and cheering on the Cougars was a favorite pastime. 

She met the love of her life, Larry Jones, while working at the LDS Relief Society building and attending night school at the BYU extension in Salt Lake City. They first met in the summer of 1968 during a class at the McCune Mansion in Salt Lake. They married on February 28, 1969, in the Salt Lake Temple just a block from where they had met in the McCune Mansion eight months earlier. 

Shortly after their first anniversary, they bought a house in Kearns, Utah. They welcomed their first two children into their family while living in that small home: Tonia, born in May 1970, and Travis, born and adopted in January 1973. While in Kearns, Ronnie also played softball in a women’s church league. Her position: catcher. She always was tough! 

During the years of 1973-1975, the young family spent their time traveling between Monroe, Utah, and St George, Utah. The couple built their first home on 300 East in Monroe while they lived in Washington, Utah, where Larry was serving in a special assignment renovating the AC in the St. George temple remodel.

In 1975, after spending the first thirty years of her life moving around so often, she and Larry were only too happy to make Monroe their forever home and complete their forever family through the adoption of Todd, Delia, and Elisha from Costa Rica, in 1979, and Trenton from Mexico, in 1980. Larry and Ronnie would also help raise other children through the LDS Indian Placement program. Sharon and Darryl Sam would come to be seen as an extension to their family and fully embraced as daughter and son. 

Even with the busyness of raising eight children, Ronnie, who loved education and learning, earned a second degree and a teaching certificate from Southern Utah University in Cedar City, Utah. With this teaching degree, Ronnie found much satisfaction working, especially among the youth. Her teaching jobs included resource aid at Monroe Elementary, a resource and ESL teacher at South Sevier High School, a PE teacher at South Sevier Middle School, and a history and math teacher to the inmates at the Sevier Valley Correctional Facility. Additionally, she owned two businesses: wedding/floral decorating and vinyl/digital scrapbooking. 

Not only did she spend a large amount of her time among the youth professionally, but she also served in many church callings with the youth, including: young women’s president, stake girls’ camp specialist, and stake young women sports specialist. Later in her life, she served as a Relief Society teacher and secretary. She and Larry spent their last month's together before his death, volunteering in Hawaii at the Polynesian Cultural Center. 

Charlene’s life was an example of her two most common sayings: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way” and “We’re making memories!” That will of hers carried her over many challenges throughout her life including depression that she battled most of her adult life and a brain tumor in 1990, which left her having to re-learn math and reading. Even at the end of her life, when all of her physical abilities were taken from her, she found the will to keep an optimistic attitude and genuine gratitude for those around her. 

And yes, she certainly made so many memories – from evacuating the first floor of her high school due to a science lab explosion she was responsible for to taking out the entire ski patrol during a college ski run to throwing the best 24th of July celebrations (waterslide included) to paragliding at age 70. Mom, thank you for being a great example of selfless service to your family, finding the will to overcome hard things, and creating memories we will cherish. We dearly miss you but we’ll keep on making memories until we are with you again. 

The family wishes to thank Zions Way Hospice, Sandra Baldwin, and especially Kim Pollock for their care during the last years of Ronnell’s life. They were truly her angels here on earth! 

Funeral Services will be Saturday, January 4, 2025 at 12 Noon in the Monroe Stake Center. There will be a viewing prior to services at the Stake Center from 10:00 to 11:30 am. Interment will be in the Monroe Cemetery.

Funeral Directors: Magleby Mortuary, Richfield, Salina, and Manti. Online guestbook www.maglebymortuary.com

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