Elois Jones Folkes' Obituary
Elois Jones Folkes, 104, of Dallas, Texas, passed away peacefully on May 21, 2025.
Born August 10, 1920, in Dodson, a tiny village in Winn Parish, Louisiana, Elois was the eldest of four girls raised in a one-room cabin in nearby Gaars Mill. When her father, James Osey Jones, died from sepsis following a plowing accident, seven-year-old Elois helped her mother, Rosa Belle (Warner) Jones, keep the family fed “off the land.” The experience forged a resilience and work ethic that defined the rest of her life.
Determined to pursue an education, Elois graduated from Gaars Mill High School and, at 16, joined the inaugural class of Baylor Hospital School of Nursing in Dallas. Nursing became both her vocation and her joy; she served patients with steady hands and gentle humor for nearly seven decades, retiring only at the remarkable age of 90.
While caring for post-operative patients at Baylor Hospital, she fluffed a young man’s pillow and quipped, “Oh goodness, this pillow is as heavy as a bale of cotton.” The patient, Hilton Folkes, never forgot her warmth. Four years later, after Elois earned her nursing pin, they were married at Gaston Avenue Baptist Church. Dallas remained their home base, though frequent trips to Winn Parish kept family roots strong.
Elois and Hilton balanced their busy Dallas lives with frequent trips back home to care for Elois’s mother, Aunt Mary Lou Warner, and Uncle Ira Warner. Those visits kept her bonds with her sisters strong and let a deep sense of family flourish for her children and grandchildren. Their house overflowed with laughter, tales of Louisiana pine woods, and the rich aromas of Elois’s legendary cooking.
She is survived by her sister, Margaret Eileen Thomas of Sarepta, Louisiana; her three daughters, Cynthia Sperry, Jane Folkes, and Emily Heslop and husband Ron, all of Dallas; five grandchildren—Blu Guerrier of Brooklyn, New York, Grant MacManus and wife Karen of Dallas, Josh Sperry of Mill Valley, California, Liza Moore and husband William of Round Rock, Texas, and Melissa Sperry of Dallas—and one great-grandson, Shepard Stillman Moore.
A graveside service will be held Friday, June 6, 2025, at 9:00 a.m. at Restland Cemetery, 13005 Greenville Avenue, Dallas, Texas 75243. All who were touched by Elois’s life are welcome to attend and celebrate her remarkable journey.
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