Juanita O. Stone

Juanita O. Stone, beloved wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, passed away March 6, 2015. Born July 5, 1923, to William Henry Cook and Minnie Lee Tavey Elrod in Buckhead, Georgia, she moved to Texas at an early age. As a precocious young child, Juanita would entertain the patrons in her parents' cafe on Lower Greenville and ride the streetcar by herself to the movies in downtown Dallas. Circumstances changed during the Depression and the family moved to a house in the country with no electricity or running water. She graduated from Roanoke High School in 1941 and is rumored to have traveled with the circus. After attending business school, she started her working career at Sears on Lamar in Dallas. She worked for Southwest Airmotive at Love Field during WW II and later at Beard & Stone Automotive where she met her future husband, Bill Stone. Juanita worked for more than a quarter century at the Preston Center Sanger Harris/Foley's and continued to meet for lunch with her former colleagues for decades. Nicknamed "Nini" by neighborhood children, she was a Cub Scout den mother, a Brownie and Girl Scout leader, an elementary school room mother and spectator at untold baseball, basketball, football and soccer games, track meets and dance recitals. She also enjoyed volunteering, especially at the Dallas Arboretum. Juanita was preceded in death by her parents and husband, J.W. "Bill" Stone. She is survived by son Jim Stone and wife Kitty, son Rick Stone and wife Elizabeth Blanchard, and daughter Deborah Stone. Grandchildren and great-grandchildren include Jenny Stone and Neil Sreenan; Richard and Charity Stone and their children Sophie and Connor; Garrett Stone and Mary Jo Gierut and their children Nathan and Matthew Stone, and Logunn, Kade and Landry Gierut; Joanna Stone and Christopher Shaw; Lindsay and Mike Young and their children Sara and Samantha. Visitation is 6 pm to 8 pm Monday, March 9 at Sparkman Hillcrest Funeral Home, 7504 W. Northwest Highway, Dallas. Funeral service will be held at Sparkman Hillcrest at 10 am Tuesday, March 10, with graveside services to follow in Hillcrest Memorial Park.