Karen Elaine Jones

Karen Elaine (Peterson) Jones died Monday, May 25, 2026, three years after her first diagnosis of ovarian cancer. Mom never "lost her fight" with cancer; she won. She never let the disease rob her of her joy, or her kindness, and to the very end her love for others illuminated her every step.

Karen was born on February 20, 1949, to Robert Raymond and Hazel Flory (McClintock) Peterson in Selma, California. Karen was the oldest of three children and grew up in the Los Angeles area in Hawthorne. She held degrees from Simpson College and the Los Angeles County Medical Center School of Nursing. At Simpson, Mom met Ronald Ray Jones through her brother Karl; they were married for 52 years in December 2025.

A woman of profound and sincere Christian faith, Karen decided in her teens that she wanted to be a missionary nurse. She and her husband worked for 20 years among the Teduray people on the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Karen had many accomplishments in her missions career, which included being among the first generation of women to assume roles on the leadership team. She and Ron developed deep ties to their community in their time in the Philippines, which continued to the last years of her life.

From 2004 to 2015, Ron and Karen lived in Palmer, Alaska, where she worked in various healthcare positions, in addition to her administrative work in support of Ron's pastoral role at the Glacierview Alliance Church. For the last eleven years, Mom and Dad lived in Yakima, reconnecting with family.

Karen was a vibrantly intelligent person, ever curious about how things worked, and why. At nursing school graduation, Karen was the first student to receive both the Faculty Achievement Award and the Alumni Association's Annie M. Yates Scholarship. Organized, reliable, and a detailed planner, she was a natural leader and helped steer many of the groups she belonged to with a quiet, steady hand. She would joke about her “Scotch thrift,” but her resourcefulness and her attention to detail were hallmarks of her home, her career and her kitchen. Mom was many things, but to those who had the privilege to be loved by her, there was no doubt how much she cared. She remembered everyone’s favorite foods and was a well-known cook and baker. What she taught her children was the power of breaking bread together, and the language of love through food. She cared for her husband through his decade-long struggle with Parkinson's disease, through sickness and through health. She was a loving mother and grandmother and had a dear circle of friends that she collected across the years and the many lives she lived.

Karen is preceded in death by her beloved husband, Ron Jones, her parents, Bob and Hazel Peterson, her brother Karl Peterson, and her sister-in-law Janice Sazama. She is survived by her children: Johanna (Kevin) Blair, Adam Jones (Greg Uberuaga), Rachel (Clayton) Bussey, and Martha Jones (Danna Martin), along with her treasured grandchildren: Keira and Kellan Blair and Liam and Maya Bussey. She is also survived by her brother Dale (Midge) Peterson and his family, her husband’s sisters and their families, and many Peterson and McClintock cousins.

A celebration of life will be held for Karen on Friday, June 26th at 2PM at the Alliance Church, Yakima. Her family would like to thank her care team, especially the kind staff at North Star Lodge, MultiCare Yakima Memorial Hospital, HopeBridge Home Health, and Heartlinks Hospice.