She left this earthly plain on Oct. 6, 2020. Jean was the oldest of the three sisters and one brother, Patricia “Pat” Thornburg, Joan “Joanne” Curry and Ron “Butch” Strom. In her early years the family moved around a lot and when she married, she made her husband, Irving “Buzz”, promise that their children would attend one grade school, one Jr. high, and one high school. Jean graduated from Rogers High School in 1949. Her good friends, Babe, Carol, Dodie, and Irene, all remained close friends throughout her life. They had great times and adventures including hitchhiking all the way and back to Seattle. Jean met Buzzy while hanging out with these hooligans and meeting up with the Carnahan Hill kids. This is also when she met her best friends of 67 years, Buck and Jan. Jean and Buzz were married on June 4, 1954. After 5 years they had their first child, Lezlie. The second child, Eric, arrived two years later. Mom enjoyed bowling (from before her children were born to last year), golf, playing bridge, going to Mariners games, animals, travel, had a lifelong love of flight, and white zinfandel. Her love of travel took her to Hawaii, Florida, Louisiana, California, the Southwest, and across the U.S.A. bringing back school busses from Georgia with Buck and Jan. She was a member of the Valley Firefighters Auxiliary while her husband was on the department and went to many Firefighter conferences throughout the state. Her potato salad was famous on the 4th of July at the lake with Buck and Jan, Buzzy and all the kids. Jean is survived by her daughter Lezlie (John Hodgkin) Busby of Bothell, Eric (Danette) Busby of Spokane, sister, Joan Curry of Lacey, sister-in-law’s Linda (Ron) Strom, Spokane Valley, Linda Busby, Tacoma and Cindy Busby, Pahoa, Hawaii, numerous nieces, nephews and friends, all of whom she dearly loved. There will be a private graveside service with a memorial gathering at Darcy's Restaurant in Spokane Valley on October 24th, starting at 4 pm. In lieu of flowers you may donate to the Spokane Humane Society as Jean never met an animal she didn’t like.