Jolene Tisso Foster

Jolene was born on March 19.1938 in Portland, Oregon to Louis Joseph Tisso and Enid Lane. Jolene was a bright child and learned all of the nursery rhymes from a neighbor by the age of two. She learned to type and at a young age and was very fast. Jolene was very social and enjoyed her high school years. She later attended Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington. Where she meet and married her first husband Benjamin J. Woobank. She had five children with her first husband.

Jolene was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She became a member in 1963. Jolene knew at a young age that there was a God. Her parents were not believers. When the missionaries came to her house she vacuumed around them as they talked to her husband. When he was at work she read the Book of Mormon that they left. She knew it was true and wanted to be baptized. She has served in many callings throughout her life, but the thing she loved most was family history. She loved family history even before she joined the church. Jolene has blessed many lives through this work. Her home was filled with binders and binders of genealogy.

There was nothing Jolene couldn't do. She was very smart and incredibly talented. She loved sewing and made all of her clothes.. She loved calligraphy and used it for posters, flyers, invitations, and anything that needed writing. She could fix anything and had all the tools to do it! She loved teaching lessons at church and making handouts and posters to go with the lessons. She love to type and print the Sunday program. She did that for over 30 years.

She meet and married her second husband Donald L. Foster and had her sixth child, Lisa.

Jolene worked for the church for 23 years. She started working for the Deseret Industries in Portland, Oregon. In 1979 after her divorce from Donald Foster, she transferred to the Provo, Utah Deseret Industries as the payroll clerk. In 1985 she got promoted to the position of Controller. She over saw operations of several Deseret Industries. In 1993 she was transferred to Deseret Manufacturing where she worked until she retired. She was a hard worker.

In 1979 she packed up all she owned and her youngest daughter, Lisa, and moved to Utah. She didn't know a soul, but she said it was the best move she ever made. She loved living in Utah. She had many friends.

She meet and married Sione Alamoti Lavaki in Janurary1980.

In 1985 Jolene found a large lump the size of a walnut in her neck. She went to the doctor and he said he wanted to remove it that week. She told him she couldn't do it that soon. He asked her if she had her funeral planned. She had the lump removed. She was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. She was 47. She began a 12 week course of chemotherapy. She would drive to the hospital to get the chemo and by the time she made it to the on ramp of the freeway she would start to be sick. One of the rounds was very powerful. After a few hours she was to take a pill that would counteract the chemo. The pills had side affects of a heart attack. By Thursday morning she felt good enough to go to work. She would work for a few hours. Then Monday would come and she'd start over again. This was a very scary time. She survived the cancer and never had a relapse.

Jolene is preceded in death by her father, Louis Tisso, her mother, Enid Lane Tisso, her brother Timothy Tisso, and her son Scott A. Woobank and two grandchildren. She is survived by her sister, Sharon L. Ewins (Doug) of Santa Barbara, California, her children, Julie J Woobank Pond (Eric) of Vancouver Washington, Dennis D Woobank of Camas Washington, Brian J Woobank (Cathy) of Tacoma, Washington, Lori L. Woobank-Garcia (Sam) of Boring Oregon, and Lisa L Foster Wilson (Lynn) of Stansbury Park, Utah. Jolene had 18 grandchildren and 10 great grandchildren.

A visitation will be held for her at Valley View Funeral home in West Valley City, Utah from 12:30 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. where friends and family can come and pay their respects.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Emily Wilson for her upcoming mission to the Brazil, Recife South Mission. Jolene was very excited for Emily to serve and wanted to help her as much as she could.