Jill Boag Bacon

Jill Boag Bacon passed away peacefully Sunday, October 4th following a brief illness, with family by her side. She was born Sept 16, 1935 in Antioch, California, the beloved only child of William Orr Boag of Fayetteville City, Pennsylvania, and Pauline Hanshaw Boag of Modesto, California, whose grandparents had migrated to California in the 1850’s by covered wagons on the Oregon Trail.

Jill was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in Pittsburg, California with her fondest memories of visiting and staying with relatives in San Francisco. There she was introduced to museums and botanical gardens and fine department stores. She was active in the Rainbow Girls in high school and Chi Omega sorority in college. After graduating from San Jose State College in 1957 with a Bachelor of Arts and a teaching certificate, she moved to Carmel and taught elementary school in Monterey for two years before taking a job teaching dependent children for the Department of the Army in Fulda, Germany. It was there that she met and married the love of her life, the handsome Lieutenant Stanley Bacon Jr, and where they started their family with the birth of their first daughter Lynn in 1961. Their second daughter Allison arrived while stationed at Fort Benning, Georgia in 1963.

They were married for 66 years, during which, as a military wife, Jill moved 10 times in 23 years, retiring in Austin in 1981. In addition to Fulda and Fort Benning, she also lived in Ft. Knox KY, Concord CA, Champaign IL, West Point NY, Ft. Hood TX, Canberra, Australia, and Springfield VA. While Stan was in Vietnam, and whenever a posting made it possible, Jill was employed as an elementary school teacher or a GED prep teacher. Jill loved teaching and the children, but particularly enjoyed teaching the soldiers at Ft. Hood who were trying to improve their lives.

Jill was talented with handiwork of many kinds and made most of the clothing for herself and her daughters. In addition to knitting, crochet, needlepoint and embroidery, she learned how to quilt and was an active member of the Austin Area Quilt Guild. She volunteered wherever she lived, with the Officers’ Wives Club and AAUW (American Association of University Women) while Stan was on active duty. After retirement, she volunteered with Meals on Wheels and was very active at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church with the Hospitality Committee, Prayer Shawl Ministry, and the Women’s Prison Storybook Project.

Jill and Stan loved their life of traveling and entertaining friends, and were experts at throwing dinner parties. In their retirement, they planned excursions to Alaska, Europe, Great Britain, the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Russia, Mexico, South and Central America, China and Thailand and shared many memorable adventures with dear friends and classmates that travelled with them. They also loved their time at home caring for and being with their grandchildren and playing their nightly card games and dominos together.

Jill is survived by her husband Stan, her daughters Lynn and Allison, son-in-law Keith, her grandchildren Kyle, Briar, Shelby and Bryce, and many beloved friends.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church https://stmattsaustin.org/ or Women’s Storybook Project https://storybookproject.org/