Mary Alice Jackson

Coca-Cola cake, chocolate and peanut butter Easter eggs, homemade pies – even the crust! Baking was one of Mary Alice (Duffy) Jackson’s many talents. In addition to her homemade birthday cakes and Easter treats, she made candles and other creations for friends and neighbors at Christmas for many years.

Photography was a passion as well. She filled a lifetime’s worth of photo books which chronicle the lives of all her family members. Alice loved gardening. When her children were small, she would pack them up in the spring and fall and pick out plants at a local nursery to rehome in one of her well-fertilized flower beds. Her house was full of bushy plants and African violets. One of her favorites was a redwood tree she placed in the back yard, in the space where her goldfish pond used to be. The redwood, like all her plants, has been very happy in its West Virginia home.

Alice, who spent most of her life with her husband, Jim, in the outskirts of Charleston, went to be with Jesus on August 26, 2023. She was born in Richwood on Feb. 2, 1937, to John Alderson and Freda Margaret (O’Dell) Duffy. She was a lifelong caregiver, first as a registered nurse in South Carolina and Charleston, WV, and as a mother to Debbie (Diljak), Mark Jackson, and Teresa (Leonard). She later cared for her beloved husband of 53 years, James Jackson, Jr., who became disabled due to a medical condition. Alice also opened their home to her mother, and later, Jim’s mother, Edith Geraldine, as they grew older.

Alice, 86, loved being a wife and mother, West Virginia, and Jesus (not necessarily in that order). She was predeceased by her infant brother, John Alderson, her parents; her infant daughter, Susan Lee; her husband, James Jackson, Jr., and a grandson, James Vincent Jackson. She is survived by daughter Debbie, son Mark and his wife, Debbie, daughter, Teresa and her husband, CH, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Celebration of Alice’s life will be 2 pm Wednesday, August 30, 2023 at Tyler Mountain Funeral Home in Cross Lanes. Burial will follow in Tyler Mt. Memory Gardens, Cross Lanes.

Gathering of family and friends will be Tuesday from 6 to 8 pm at the funeral home.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to HospiceCare (hospicecarewv.org).

Online condolences can be sent to the family at www.tylermountainfuneralhome.com