Emma Louise Washington

Emma Louise (Jones) Washington was born on September 22, 1927 in Stamps, Arkansas to Ida Bea (Beatrice) and Willie Fair Jones. Emma was Beatrice’s only child. She was outgoing, even as a child, and never met a stranger.

Emma attended school in St. Louis, Missouri where she graduated from Vashon High School. During World War II, she worked at Barnes Hospital after school, which inspired her to want to become a nurse.

She graduated from the Homer G. Phillips Hospital School of Nursing in 1949 and began a career as a registered nurse after moving to Indianapolis, Indiana in 1952. She retired from Methodist Hospital in 1986 after 34 years of service; 24 years in positions as head nurse in the operating room and O.R. instructor, teaching operating room technicians, followed by ten years on the Gyn (gynecologic) unit.

Emma was baptized as one of Jehovah’s Witnesses on March 23, 1968, when she says her life ‘began’. She was happy to use her nursing skills volunteering in the First Aid Department at circuit assemblies and district conventions as well as visiting, supporting, comforting and caring for many of her Christian brothers and sisters when in the hospital having surgery and recovering at home afterward.

After retirement from secular employment, Emma entered the full-time Christian ministry as a regular pioneer of Jehovah’s Witnesses, which she continued the remainder of her life. During that time, she had the opportunity to travel around the world, attending international conventions of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Hawaii, Poland, West Africa, South Africa, Greece, and Spain.

Emma was preceded in death by her half-brother, Lovett Jones, her mother, Beatrice Hill, her father, Willie Fair Jones and his sisters, Emma Jones Gallagher and (Anna) Louise Boone, her aunts whom she was named after.

She is survived by and leaves to cherish her memory, her son, Doyle Anthony (Tony) Shanks, her daughter, Karla (Ward) McConnell, and her grand-daughter, Nichelle Lynn Carr (Tyrone). Having been an only child, Emma especially loved and is survived by her first cousins, Sandra Chaney and Norma Jean Phillips, as well as a host of other cousins. “Sweet little Emma from Arkansas” will also be greatly missed and fondly remembered by many beloved spiritual sons and daughters, Christian brothers and sisters, as well as beloved friends.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.crownhill.org for the Washington family.