Joyce Edna Jones

Our mother was the only child of Gustav and Edna Scotberg. Born during the depression of the 1930’s she had a wonderful childhood, with parents who loved her dearly. These two individuals raised an incredible woman whose legacy will live for several generations.

As a young girl, she attended Green Mountain School, at that time, a two room schoolhouse. She excelled there and took a diligent study habit to Woodland High School where she became the valedictorian. The cute petite blond girl received a college scholarship as a result of her academic excellence. In her senior year, she played the piano for a small, newly formed church, the Green Mountain Baptist Church.

The new pastor who began preaching in the church was quite smitten with the young woman playing the piano on Sunday mornings. Edna, sensing a budding relationship, asked Bob Jones to lunch with them nearly every Sunday after church. The inevitable happened. Robert L. Jones married Joyce, and so began a marriage that spanned 63 years. Together they served in Baptist churches throughout the Northwest.

During that time, the two of them raised seven children. Although Joyce’s days were busy running a household, serving as pastor’s wife, raising seven children, while occasionally working outside the home, she found outlets for her artist heart. She enthralled her young daughters with hand made paper dolls and clothes. She leaves us with oil paintings, her poetry, the spinning wheels and felted gifts. She loved the spring garden, ever optimistic about the future, listing projects and jobs she wanted to accomplish. Always the life-long, enthusiastic learner, our mom regularly requested books on an astonishing variety of topics from the Fort Vancouver Regional Library.

She loved her husband, her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. But Joyce’s truest legacy will be her passion and love for Jesus Christ. Every evening our family was blessed with a mom and dad who prayed for each by name, praying over troubles, rejoicing in victories. And as the families grew, so did their time of prayer. Her chief desire in prayer was that each one would know Jesus Christ as Savior.

Our father went to heaven in 2019. His daughter-in-law, Vicki Jones, followed him home in 2020. Our mom joined them on November 7th, 2025.

Steve Jones, Sharon Rinta, Ken Jones, Rebecca Gore, Nancy Murry, Randal Jones, and Nathan Jones will forever cherish our mother. Her quiet passing, as she left for home in her sleep, left us grieving with an acute sense of loss with the absence of the family matriarch. She will be missed, but her hope is our hope. We will once again see her in heaven with our Savior, Jesus Christ.