Mrs. Jean Sellars Medenis

Ward Wilson Funeral Home and Crematory

Viewed: 992

Posted by: Ward Wilson
Date: Apr 03 2019 10:59 AM

Jean Sellars Medenis, longtime resident of Newton, AL, passed away Sunday, March 31, 2019 in Pasadena, MD, following a long illness.  She was 88.

Funeral services will be held 2:00PM on Sunday, April 7, at Ward Wilson Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Bob Sanders officiating. Burial will follow in New Hinson Baptist Church Cemetery, 1143 Co Rd 48, Slocomb, AL.  The family will receive friends at the funeral home from 1:00 p.m. until 2:00 p.m. prior to the service.

She was born “Violet Jean Sellars” on May 23, 1930, to Joe D. and Carmi Johnson Sellars in Geneva County, AL.  When she was three years old, her mother died and a year later her father remarried Leona Baxley who became a beloved Mom to Jean for the rest of her life. With the exception of a few years, Jean lived all of her life in Southeast Alabama and Northwest Florida.

During the early 1950s, she was employed as a bookkeeper and office manager with the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Panama City, FL.  It was during that time that she met and married the love of her life, John J. Medenis, who was then stationed at Tyndall AFB, in Panama City. During their time in the military, they were also stationed at Fairchild AFB, WA and Glasgow AFB, MT.  In 1964, John Medenis retired from the Air Force and the family returned to southern AL and built their lifetime home in Newton, AL.

Mrs. Medenis was a skilled seamstress and enjoyed sewing, crocheting, and knitting items for her family and friends. During the late 1960s/early 1970s she was employed at the Newton Fabric Center in Newton, AL. Her other hobbies included horticulture, landscaping, and painting. She loved the local wildlife, and was especially fond of hummingbirds. For many years, she also worked as a Red Cross Volunteer at Lyster Army Hospital on Fort Rucker, AL.

Jean Sellars Medenis was devoted to her family and was an avid family genealogist who spent many, many hours tracing their ancestry through local and national records. She was a loving wife, mother, aunt, grandmother, and great-grandmother.  She will be dearly missed.

She was predeceased in death by her parents, Joseph D. and Carmi Johnson Sellars and stepmother Leona Baxley Sellars, formerly of Dothan and Malvern, AL; by her husband, John J. Medenis, formerly of Newton, AL; and by her sister, Marilyn Sellars, formerly of Panama City, FL.

She is survived by one son, Michael M. (Tommi Martin) Medenis, of Bonita Springs, FL; by one granddaughter, Jourdan Medenis (Deven Christianer), of Evington, VA; by two great-grandchildren, Alexandrea Medenis-Cheeseman and Zackary Christianer of Evington, VA; by one nephew, Robert Strickland (Betsy) of Fayetteville, GA; and by many, many friends.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in her name be made to the Alzheimer's Resource Center, 1314 Westgate Plwy St. 2, PO Box 1170 Dothan, AL 36302

Final arrangements are under the direction of Ward-Wilson Funeral Home, Dothan, Alabama.

 

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