Jean McKinley Popp

COLUMBIA - Our beloved, vivacious, loving mom, grandma and great grandma, Helen Jean McKinley Popp, died in her sleep of Alzheimer’s at the age of 94 on Sunday, June 19, 2016, at the Wildewood Downs assisted living facility in Columbia, SC where she had been living for a little over a year. Jean, as she preferred to be called, was born March 31, 1922, to Harriett Roberts Neumann and William Neumann in Oak Park, IL. She graduated from York High School and attended Elmhurst College both in Elmhurst, IL. On July 2, 1943, she married Lieutenant J.G. Gilbert Gage McKinley in Chicago. They lived in Glen Ellyn and Naperville, IL before retiring to Fripp Island and then Dataw, SC and finally settling in Naples, FL. Jean was an accomplished seamstress making many of her own clothes and her kids’ costumes. Later in her life, she created numerous beautiful quilts for her family and friends, several of which won first place ribbons in juried contests. She enjoyed cooking, home entertaining, gardening, playing bridge and golfing, even scoring two holes-in-one. After Gilbert’s death in 2001, she married one of her long time best friends, John W. Popp on January 29, 2005, in Columbia, SC. Together they enjoyed taking trips within the U.S. and Europe. Jean is survived by her husband John William Popp; her children Georgia McKinley Munsell and Jeffrey Gage McKinley and their spouses Mark Lowell Munsell and Cameron Curtis McKinley; her grandchildren Jamison Gage McKinley and Kendall Blaire McKinley VanNostrand and their spouses Sommer Ghaleb McKinley and "Sol" Shawn David VanNostrand; and a great granddaughter Sloane Ghaleb McKinley; as well as four step-children, eleven step-grandchildren and six step-great grandchildren. A private memorial service will be help in Sonoma, CA in November. Memorial tributes may be made to the Alzheimer’s Association, http://www.alzfdn.org/Donation-Page.