Jeanne Boyles Cooke

Jeanne has left this life to join her friend, Jesus, in Heaven. She faithfully prayed daily. Mom would say that if God was busy, she would talk to Jesus. She was the fifth daughter of eleven children.

Jeanne was a dedicated worker. She learned about hard work at an early age, following the example of her father, the house painter. She sold butter to the neighbors to earn the money she needed for her high school class ring. After graduation from Central High School in High Point, Jeanne passed the Federal Civil Service exam and went to work for the U.S. War Department in High Point. She worked in the records and microfilm section of the United States Army. Later, when the War Department records unit moved to St. Louis, Missouri, Jeanne moved to St. Louis. She enjoyed going to baseball games and seeing the sites in St. Louis and had many adventures there. Jeanne returned to High Point to be married. She was a loving and devoted mother to Kathleen and Shaw.

Jeanne fulfilled her goal of earning a nursing degree in her forties, following in the footsteps of two of her sisters. She enrolled in the Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) program at Guilford Technical College, where she graduated with honors. After completing the LPN program, Jeanne worked at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, N.C. for two years. For twenty-seven years, she worked at Piedmont Orthopedics Associates (POA), in Greensboro. She took great pride in her cast work and enjoyed helping patients recover from their injuries and was very good at managing her doctor, Dr. D. Jeanne, enjoyed working with the doctors, nurses, and other staff at POA, and all of them became lifelong friends.

A constant in her life was her circle of friends. She was in a bridge club for 50+ years, was a long-time member of the First Baptist Church of High Point, NC, where she worked in the First Baptist baby nursery for the majority of the time that she was a member there. She was part of the team that took care of the babies along with Helen Sheffield, Linda Marion and Peggy Gilly. Helen liked to tell parents that they had a nurse on board for their most precious cargo. Jeanne often told the story about the baby girl who leaned over and kissed her on the cheek after a diaper change. She later was a church volunteer “on the desk”. Jeanne stayed active. She planted a large garden every year, walked in her neighborhood in Greensboro, practiced yoga, and later Tai Chi until she was 90 years old. Her Tai Chi group called her the mascot. They went out to dinner once a month. With every new member, Jeanne was asked to demonstrate that she could put her palms flat on the floor, which she could do BEFORE she joined Tai Chi.

Jeanne will be missed by friends and family, but especially by her children, Shaw and Kathleen. She was the mother everyone should have had. Jeanne was preceded in death by her mother, Addie Moran Boyles and father, Colonel Thomas Boyles; sisters, Daisy Lee Hill, Margaret Virginia Hilliard, Pauline Mary Boyles, and Rose Mary Boyles; brothers; William Boyles, and Sidney Lewis Boyles.

Those left to cherish her memory include her daughter, Kathleen L. Cooke and son-in-law, James Page of Charlotte, NC; son, Shaw Cooke, III of Springfield, VA; sisters, Janie Joan Dickens of High Point, NC, Iris Boyles Mitchell of High Point, NC; brothers, Carlton Thomas Boyles of Trinity, NC and Johnny Melvin Boyles of Dallas, TX; step-grandchildren, Rhonda Page McGuire of Charlotte, NC and Kimberly Page Parsons of Winston Salem, NC; and many nieces and nephews and other extended family and friends.

Funeral services, celebrating Jeanne’s life, will be held at First Baptist Church of High Point, 405 N. Main Street, High Point, NC, at 2:00 PM, Thursday, October 16, 2025. Interment will follow in Guilford Memorial Park located at 6000 West Gate City Blvd., Greensboro, NC 27407.

Online condolences may be made at www.haneslineberryfhsedgefield.com