Alice Jeanes

Alice Marie was born to Martin and Violet Hebb, on September 3, 1932, at her maternal grandparents’ farmhouse just north of Howard, KS.  She was the oldest of four children, with a brother, James, and sisters, Lucille and Shirley.  After graduating from Howard High School, she moved to Wichita, KS to attend the American Business College.

While working at the Veterans Hospital in Wichita she met and married John Frederick.  From this marriage, June, Marsha, and Duane were born. She raised the children as a single parent while working at Beech Aircraft Corporation.  In 1970 she married Weldon Ramsey and together had a daughter, Rene. It was during this marriage that the family moved to Texas, arriving in Bryan in 1972. She remained married to Weldon until his death in 1987.  Once again, she was a single parent raising a child.  In 1999 she married Alfred W. (A.W.) Jeanes, Sr. until his death in 2005.

She began her career with the Texas A&M University-Entomology Department in 1972.  Initially working at the Entomology Research Lab she gained a wealth of knowledge about flies, roaches, beetles, bees, and other insects, pests, and diseases. In 1978, after the completion of the Minnie Belle Heep Building, she transferred to the Student Counseling Office.  In 1982 she became secretary for the Department Head until his retirement in 1993.  In 1997 she retired having served the Department for 25 years.  Alice received the Department of Entomology’s Meritorious Staff Award in 1997 and was nominated for the 1996 Vice Chancellor’s Award in Excellence Program. In December 2017 she was recognized with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University. She was the first staff member, and woman, to receive the award.

During her spare time, she was an avid bowler.  Her passion for bowling spanned 5 decades, beginning while in Wichita, KS, and ending with leagues in College Station, TX.  She bowled in ladies’ leagues, mixed leagues, and senior leagues and participated in numerous city and state tournaments.

Alice also loved to travel, which she inherited from her mother and passed down to her children.  She traveled east to the Atlantic Coast in North Carolina, west to the Pacific Ocean in Oregon, north to Minot, ND, south to the Texas beaches along the Gulf of Mexico, and so many places in between.  There was also a trip to Germany with her grandson, Justin.  One of her most recent travels included visiting the life-size Noah’s Ark in Williamstown, Kentucky.

Alice is preceded in death by her parents, brother James Martin Hebb and his wife Margaret, her brother-in-law Ernie Knight,  sons-in-law David Puckett and Mel Davenel, and daughter-in-law Kimberly Frederick.

She is survived by her sisters: Lucille Knight, and Shirley McGill and husband Lew; her children: June Davenel, Marsha Puckett, Duane Frederick, and Rene Gerbers and husband Kevin; along with 9 grandchildren, 9 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great-grandchild due in 2024.

Her life will be celebrated at 2pm Friday, December 15, 2023, at Callaway-Jones Funeral Center in Bryan. There will be an hour of visitation prior to the service beginning at 1pm.