Obituary of Jean Dykes Ward

Mrs. Claire Virginia “Jean” Dykes Ward, a resident of Newton, died Friday, September 9, 2022, at her home. She was 81 years old. Funeral services for Mrs. Ward will be 11:00 A.M. Thursday, September 15, 2022, in the Chapel of Holman Funeral Home in Ozark with Reverend Ben Paramore and Reverend Gene Nelson officiating. Interment will follow in Newton City Cemetery, Holman Funeral Home of Ozark directing. The family will receive friends at the funeral home in Ozark Thursday from 9:30 A.M. until service time. Flowers will be accepted. Mrs. Ward was born June 26, 1941 in Geneva County, Alabama to the late Virgil Dykes and Tee Waters Dykes. She was a 1958 graduate of Midland City High School and attended Troy State Teachers College . She received her Licensed Practical Nursing Degree from Wallace Junior College and her Registered Nursing Degree from Wallace Nursing School. She began her career with Southeast Alabama Medical Center where she worked as a floor nurse and surgery nurse for twenty years. She then worked with Flowers Hospital for twenty years, retiring in 2005. Jean loved collecting dishes, scrapbooking, going speckled trout fishing and online shopping. In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by one brother, Lester Wendell “Winkie” Dykes. Survivors include her loving husband of 64 years, Henry Clarence Ward of Newton, one son and daughter-in-law, Kenneth David and Patty Ward of Newton; two daughters and sons-in-law, Lisa Collette and Henley Hicks of Slocomb and Susan Aimee and Ben Paramore of Newton; four grandchildren that she adored, Jordan Paramore, Emma Paramore, Stephen Hicks and Megan Paramore; two sisters, Sue Bedsole (Hugh) of Dothan and Teresa Watford of Alpharetta, Georgia; one sister-in-law, Lou Ann Dykes of Napier Field. Many special nieces and nephews also survive.