Jean was the beloved Mother, Nana (grandmother and great grandmother), relative and friend of an extensive number of people, and will be sorely missed. As one of Jean’s six children has said, “Mom loved us so well that we each felt we were her favorite.”
Jean was born in New York City to James and Marie Dolan on May 6, 1932. After high school Jean attended and graduated from the Katherine Gibbs School, then worked as a secretary for two years. She met her future husband on a blind date midway through his Plebe (first) year at West Point. Jean had a long courtship with William (Bill) Young Epling and they married just after his West Point graduation at the post chapel on June 10, 1954. She served her country as an Army wife until Bill retired on March 31, 1983, uprooting her family a dozen times including overseas tours in Germany and South Korea, and two hardship tours when Bill served in South Korea and Vietnam. Jean’s great passions were love of family and friends, and cooking. She maintained relationships and friendships from her childhood and courtship with Bill throughout her life, continuing even to make new connections later in life when she joined an online community/board, Contessa’s Kitchen, in 2005, which fed both her love of cooking and adeptness at friendship/relationship. Jean loved to cook and entertain and has an extensive collection of cookbooks, cookware, and table linens. Jean kept journals notating the details of her dinner parties.
Jean is preceded in death by her parents, James and Marie, sister, Marie, brother, Jim, granddaughter, Mary, and husband, Bill.
Jean is survived by her six children, Jeannie, Diane Kelly, Bill (Carolyn), Stephen (Mimi), Robert, and David (Rachel); her grandchildren Patrick (Rita), Michael (Valerie), Caitlyn (Pasquale), Sarah (Zeke), Steve, Melanie (Ben), Kathleen, and Emma; step grandchildren Kimberly (Eric), Collin (Kelsey), and Casey; great grandchildren Isla, Jacob, Ada Marie, Rhett, Jordan, Eleanor, Zoe, and Brock; step great grandchildren Madeleine, Rebekah, Riley, Jackson, Hayden, Scarlett, Keira, and Callahan.
Funeral services will be held at Fort Myer Post Chapel and Arlington National Cemetery at a date yet to be determined.
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