Jean Hobbs Stephenson Austin

Jean Hobbs Stephenson Austin stepped out of this world and into the waiting arms of the Lord, Jesus Christ on Wednesday night, September 20, 2017. Jean was born to Jacob and Audria Stephenson, just before the start of the Great Depression in Four Oaks, North Carolina. As the daughter of a tenant farmer, she knew hard work from an early age. She worked with her family on the farm until her father’s illness caused the family to have to leave that way of life for another. They then moved to Raleigh where her mother and father worked at Dorothea Dix Hospital. At sixteen, she joined in the family work again, working at the hospital part time. She was married at 18 to William Onis Austin, creating a new family. Jean worked at the North Carolina Revenue Department’s Type Setting Division until she retired at the age of 62. Living in Cary, NC, Jean knew and practiced the art of being an excellent wife, mother, grandmother, sister, daughter and friend. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and her son and daughter in law, William Timothy Austin and Dawn Southern Austin. She leaves behind a well loved family: Linda Austin Pope and Larry D. Pope, Cindy Austin Stancil and Ronald J. Stancil, Janette Austin Starkweather and Jeffrey B Starkweather. Grandchildren, some by blood and some by marriage, but all loved: David and Helen Snipes, Michael A. N. Austin, Holly and Thomas Hines, John Austin Starkweather, Joy Ann Starkweather, Robert and Heidi Mohwinkle, Thomas and Tessa Mohwinkle, Chris and Nerisa Stancil, and Brad and Olivia Stancil. Additionally, she has 9 great-grandchildren with one one the way. She is also survived by her sister, Betty Stephenson Hamilton, as well as a large extended family, some in heaven and some here on earth. You may visit the family at Brown-Wynne at 1pm on Monday, August 25, 2017, the funeral will follow at 2pm. Internment to follow at Salem Baptist Church in Apex, NC.