Eugenia "Jean" Ann (Smoot) Gould

Eugenia "Jean" Ann (Smoot) Gould, age 93 passed away on Sunday, March 6, 2022 in Chantilly, VA. Beloved wife of the late Gerard M. Gould. Jean is survived by her children, Paula Ann Gould and her husband John of Princeton, WV, Terence Matthew Gould and his wife Barbara of Mechanicsville, VA, Mary Catherine Treadaway of Enterprise, AL, Teresa Marie Bell and her husband Ira of Orange County, CA, Stephen Eugene Gould of Fairfax, VA, Timothy Francis Gould and his wife Annette of Corolla, NC, Jeffrey Anthony Gould of Fairfax, VA, Cecilia Grace Everly of Chantilly, VA, and John Patrick Gould and his wife Ginger of Fairfax, VA; her grandchildren Matthew Gerard Stoll and his wife Julie, Alicia Esther Bell, Joanna Lynn Bell, Jessica Colleen Gould and her husband John Hast, Winter Giselle Birchant, Heather Elizabeth Treadaway, Danielle Nicole Everly, Josiah Taylor Everly, Aaron Cole Everly, Richard Vincent Treadaway, Devin Eugene Gould, Mariah Terese Gould, Emma Aurelie Gould, Molly Frances Gould, Brigitte Eugenia Gould, Mary Grace Gould, Margaret Mae Gould, Krista Anna Gould, and Carl Adrian Gould; great-grandchildren Mary Claire Stoll, Jackson Matthew Stoll, and Lucille Jean Stoll; and brother David Vernon Smoot of Omaha, NE. Jean was preceded in death by her husband Gerard Mathew Gould, brothers Edward Lynn Smoot and John Steelman Smoot, and son-in-law Dewayne Lee Treadaway.

A visitation for Jean will be held Thursday, March 17, 2022 from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Demaine Funeral Home, 5308 Backlick Rd, Springfield, Virginia 22151. A funeral mass will occur Friday, March 18, 2022 at 10:30 AM at St. Mary of Sorrows Catholic Church, Fairfax, VA. A committal service will occur Friday, March 18, 2022 at Fairfax Memorial Park, 9900 Braddock Rd, Fairfax, Virginia 22042.

In lieu of flowers, contributions in Jean's memory may be made to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

From her loving family...

Eugenia “Jean” Ann (Smoot) Gould February 12, 1929 – March 6, 2022

In her lifetime, Jean Gould witnessed the 1929 stock market crash and ensuing Great Depression, World War II with V-E and V-J Days, the Korean War, the JFK assassination, the Berlin airlift, the Vietnam War, man’s first steps on the moon, Reagan’s attempted assassination, the Berlin Wall coming down, Desert Storm, the most recent pandemic, and an unmanned Mars launch.

Most meaningful to Jean were the births of her nine children, her nineteen grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. Her home was always open to family if someone needed a place to stay. She was the best Grandma a grandkid could have.

Jean was a breast cancer survivor and struggled with glaucoma for the last half of her life. As with every aspect of her life, she met these challenges, showing us how to accept the unchangeable, and exemplified what love can accomplish.

Rest in eternal peace, Mom.

MEMORIES

Each child's birthday was celebrated with a homemade cake decorated with candles and candy 'Happy Birthday' letters. Whoever was home sat around the cake for the candle lighting, blowing out, and cake eating. pag Just before school starting every year, we each took a turn on the red swivel stool getting our back to school haircuts. The boys got buzz cuts and the girls were treated to a perm. tmb

Scraping burned toast with a steak knife, saying "It'll be fine, you'll never taste the burned part." ceg

Every time one of the boys peed when I took their diapers off, she would laugh and say, "It's just angel water." ceg

Thunder was St. Peter moving furniture. ceg

Mom packing 7 kids and their stuff into the Kingswood Estate station wagon with the rear facing seats in the back for a two-day drive to Florida. She drove the whole way. We had to stop every hour cause someone always needed to go …" tfg

Jean was incredibly kind to me during our 30+ year relationship mostly as mother-in-law to daughter-in -law. … she always managed to give me sage advice without actually seeming to and I hung onto every word, mentally filing all her mom-wisdom … . A few weeks after Brigitte was born (she immediately became Kit Kat to Grandma!), Mom Gould was unpleasantly interrupted by a call from John with a woman … and a baby crying hysterically in the background. I had tried to cut Brigitte's little tiny, soft baby nails and accidentally nicked her finger in the process … and there was blood everywhere. Grandma came immediately to the rescue, sent the hysterical woman upstairs to calm down and had Brigitte cleaned and quiet while assessing the damage done to her finger. ... The advice: … put aside the nail nippers and just bite them off (confirmed a few days later by Cecilia), … I never used nail nippers again until they were much older, OR I'd take them to Grandma for nail day. gg

Hide and Seek. Way back when we were young, Mom would give us our vaccination shots. Whenever we saw the little black case with the glass syringes and needles come out there would be kids scrambling all over the house looking for places to hide and Mom and Dad would have to go seek. tmg

Role Call. With so many children in the house and with so many so close in age, Mom would sometimes have trouble keeping names straight. When she would be upset with someone she would sometimes just start at the top with the first name until she came up with the right name for the right child, so if she wanted Jeff it might be something like: Terence! Stephen! Timothy! Jeffrey! And if she was really upset your middle name would be mentioned. tmg

I remember the weekends when we were little in West Virginia that we would go to the county park to swim and have a picnic lunch. Mom would get up early and make her delicious fried chicken and potato salad and all the fixings. What now seems like such a huge undertaking was a breeze for her. She was the queen of organization and was an example for all of us to follow. Mcg

Breaking down chickens for Sunday fried chicken dinners; she could handle a paring knife with her eyes closed. Spending hours in the yard with her growing up accounting for my love of outdoor gardening today. … you could never get anything to grow like she could. Hint - Miracle Grow™ … When I came home from VT during the fall, the house always smelled like chili or vegetable soup, from the second I opened the front door, … I knew I was home… . The smell of her stuffing (sage) coming out of the kitchen on Thanksgiving mornings. jpg

MOM-ISMS

“We can fix this.” pag

“Home again, home again, jiggitty jig." ceg

“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” ceg

“I’ll take three fingers in a water glass with a splash of water.” ceg

“Cat fur to make a pair of mittens” I remember her saying this when we were younger, mostly to “why” questions. (Legacy from Grandma Smoot: Cat’s fur to make kitten’s britches.) tmb

. . . she'd always tell me "Ging, we'll be fine" or "It will be fine, Ging" whether it was a meal we'd invited her to and I'd burned everything, my coleslaw was a poor copy of hers, a dog or a kid threw up on the floor or was having a hissy fit , or simply if I was worried about anything. Those three words, combined with the peace of her spirit, comforted my life and my soul more times than I can say. gg

The roll call when she was mad at you ... she had to go through the list of names until she got the right one ... tfg

Each of us had at least one nickname, I don't know where she came up with this one for me, but she used to call me Tex. So my saying is: Hey Tex ... tmg

The one saying I remember was her yelling “Jackie, Joey, Jumpie” when she was wanting one of us and all our names got mixed up. mcg

Whenever one of us would get to laughing and have a laughing fit she would say “Looks like you’ve got a case of the te he ha ha’s.” seg

"You're a doll!" anytime I did something for her. "Peace be with you" - how we left each other's company … . JP, Chicky jpg

Instead of "God Dammit" she would say, "God Bless Old Miss Mitchell." jag

Eugenia “Jean” Ann (Smoot) Gould was born in Marmet, West Virginia, on February 12, 1929, to Beulah Mae (Pauley) and Eugene Vernon Smoot. She was the eldest child and sister to brothers Edward, John, and David.

In 1947, she graduated from Charleston Catholic High School, Charleston, West Virginia. She then continued her education at St. Francis Hospital School of Nursing, graduating in 1950, and earning her diploma and RN.

Jean married high school sweetheart Gerard “Jerry” Mathew Gould in Charleston, West Virginia, on January 27, 1951.

She worked at Thomas Memorial Hospital as a surgical nurse when her first child was born, and she continued to work through the birth of the first three of nine children born from 1952 to 1967: Paula, Terry, Mary, Teresa, Steve, Tim, Jeff, Cecilia, and John. When childcare expenses exceeded work income, she became a stay-at-home mom.

In 1965, Jean boarded a plane at Charleston’s now Yeager Airport with seven children and flew to Chicago, Illinois, for a Midwest culture change. Her ninth child was born in Wheaton, Illinois, in 1967.

Her next visit to the Chicago Airport was in August 1968, with eight children aged 14 months to 16 years, to board a flight for Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia. Destination: a newly built home in Fairfax, Virginia. The second-eldest child accompanied Dad and the dog to Fairfax in the Corvair van.

In twenty-six short months, Jean became a widow with nine children, ages 3 to 18.

During her non-working years, she had annually maintained her West Virginia nursing license. Whenever she was asked why she continued to renew, she would always say, “You never know.”

When her youngest child entered school, Jean returned to nursing as a night nurse in the medical unit at Commonwealth Hospital. There she became acquainted with Dr. Edward Gallagher, MD, who was visiting his patients. The Gallagher’s and the Gould’s had occupied entire pews at St. Mary’s Church with their large families. When he needed an office nurse, Dr. Gallagher offered the position to Jean, and she worked there until his retirement.

The Fairfax house became too much to maintain and Jean moved to Heritage Hunt in 2001. She continued to work weekends at Fairfax Nursing Home until 2009. She enjoyed the activities and friends (The Chelmsford Chicks) she made at Heritage Hunt. In June 2021, Jean left Heritage Hunt and moved to her youngest daughter’s home in Chantilly, Virginia, and celebrated her 93rd birthday there on February 12, 2022.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.demainefunerals.com for the Gould family.