March 27, 1928 - November 09, 2015
Jane was born in 1928 in Long Beach, California to Will Dexter Ball II and Jessie Anna (Tugwell) Ball. Her given name was Shirley Jane, but she went by Jane her entire life. She grew up in southern California until the age of 17, when she met a handsome Marine Corps fighter pilot, Walter L. O’Toole Jr., fresh from the war. After a short courtship, typical of post war times, they were married on December 7, 1945. Jane shared her wedding dress and veil, made of parachute silk, with three other war brides. - Jane then followed Walt back to his native Utah, where in time they had four children. She stayed home tending their children and making a life they could both be proud of while Walt finished graduate school. In 1959 they moved to Palo Alto, California where Jane became the “House Mother” at the Foreign Student Union House at Stanford University. She was mother to many, from all over the world. Jane was president of the PTA, a Girl Scout leader, and was home every day when her kids got out of school. - Walt and Jane made their final move to a small farm in Chattaroy, Washington in 1968. Her children mostly grown, Jane was then free to think about pursuing her own career, something neither she nor Walt had thought appropriate for women of the day while there were young children at home. She had dreamed of being a nurse, but was a little scared to go to college. No woman of her family had ever done that. Encouraged by her husband, though, she enrolled in nursing school in Spokane, and did very well. She worked as an LPN for a number of years before returning to school again to become an RN. She became a Labor & Delivery nurse at Sacred Heart Medical Center, bringing babies safely into the world. It was her dream job. She retired from SHMC after 20 years, but spent the next 10 years as a volunteer on obstetrics. The Kartini Clinic for Disordered Eating in Portland, Oregon named and dedicated their nursing station in her honor. Her nursing colleagues were her most treasured friends, and after Walt died unexpectedly in 1983, she carved a life of family, nursing friends, medicine and quilting as she remained alone on their farm. She was a wonderful mother to her children, a beloved grandmother and surrogate mother to many. - Jane was preceded in death by her parents, brother and sister, and her beloved husband Walt. She is survived by her four children, Julie O’Toole (Steve Nemirow), Jeffrey O’Toole, Sheila O’Toole Domon (Joe) and Timothy O’Toole; her sixteen grandchildren, Jennifer O’Toole, August Welk, Janice Welk, Jeffrey Welk, Emily Welk, Kyla Domon, Morgan O’Toole-Smith, Sheila Scrobogna, Ariel Winkelblack, Aurora Keeler, Lenora O’Toole, Carmen O’Toole, Jandaia Hanna, Walter O’Toole, Bridget O’Toole, Alison O’Toole, and seven great-grandchildren, Piper O’Toole, Daniel Scrobogna, Luca Scrobogna, Theo Winkelblack, John LaFontaine, Cameron Albertson and Mason Albertson. - At her request, there will be no public service held. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be directed to Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital.
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