Jerry Layne Dees

Jerry Dees was goal oriented. Among those goals were to marry and have a family, travel to all 50 states, become an elementary school teacher, and live to 100 years. She achieved the last of these goals on December 28, 2025. She died peacefully on January 31, 2026.

Jerry Layne Hailey was born in Kemper County, Mississippi, the sixth daughter of Chester and Jennie (Chancellor) Hailey. She excelled in school and stated college in Lewisville before moving to Detroit, where one of her sisters lived. Detroit was booming with the War effort and jobs were plentiful. She met her future husband, Jim Dees, there and they wrote to each other when he joined the Army and served in the European Theater for the duration of the war. They married in 1946 and set off for Trinidad, Colorado where Jim attended college for a two year degree on the GI Bill and Jerry taught school. They returned to Detroit in 1949. During the next ten years they vacationed with their two children, pulling a travel trailer across the country from New York and Washington DC to New Orleans and points across the west.

Jerry had substitute taught in Michigan and when the family moved to Plainfield, Indiana in 1959, she started working on her teaching degree at Indiana Central College. Over the next 15 years, she completed her undergraduate and graduate degrees and taught fourth grade at Avon Elementary. While there, she was selected to contribute to the Indiana fourth grade history program. She was a Girl Scout Leader, a Sunday school teacher at the Plainfield United Methodist Church, and belonged to a gardening club. She and Jim joined Ambassadair Travel Club and expanded their travels to Europe.

They moved to Kannapolis, NC in 1979, where they owned an antique store, were active in their church, and enjoyed family time with their son, Daryl and his family. When they retired to Sebring, FL in 1983, she was active in the Methodist Church, The Sebring Women's Club and celebrated their 50th, 60th, and 70th anniversaries. Jim died in 2019 in North Carolina and Jerry lived in an assisted living community until her son died suddenly and she moved to Indianapolis, where her daughter, Dinah, lived. With advancing Alzheimer's, she lived her final years at Hooverwood Living. Her family thanks the administration and staff for the excellent care she received there.

She was predeceased by her husband, James H. Dees and her son, Daryl William Dees. She is survived by her daughter Dinah (Dave), her daughter in law, Kathy Dees, and five grandchildren, Sarah Hantzis (Pat McSparin), Anne Duvall (Curt Rakestraw), Chance Duvall (Vanessa Anderson), Gabriel Dees (Tenile), Adam Dees (Bobbie) and four great-grandchildren.

Jerry will be laid to rest in West Lawn Memorial Park in China Grove, North Carolina.