Donna “Venie” Lavene Jones passed away on Tuesday, January 23, 2024 at the age of 76. She was born Donna Lavene Martin on April 16, 1947 to Belvie and Les Martin. She is survived by her brother, Lester Martin and his wife, Melinda Martin; her loving husband of 55 years Kirk Jones and their two children, Ryan Jones and Kira Turner and her beloved grandson, Holden Turner.
She graduated from Abilene Christian College (now Abilene Christian University) with a B.S. in Chemistry and English. She received a master’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Texas at Austin.
Donna spent her career at the Texas Rehabilitation Commissions Disability Determination Division, and when she retired, turned her attention to fly fishing.
Venie had several passions in her life, gardening and fishing, especially fly fishing which she discovered late in life and being an AA sponsor. Her gardening skills were incredible. It would be difficult to say whether she loved vegetable gardening or flower gardening more, but her crowning achievement in the former was a wonderful and tasty crop of fresh corn.
Donna was a founding member of the Texas Women’s Fly Fishing organization and served as their first treasurer. She enjoyed traveling all over Texas to fish and particularly loved Beavers Bend State Park in the Ozark Mountains in Oklahoma. Venie enjoyed the trips especially when she drug her husband along, even though he did not fish.
After participating in AA for a number of years, she was approached to be a sponsor. The role terrified her, but with ample encouragement from her friends and family, Donna took the challenge and found the role incredibly satisfying, so she repeated the experience multiple times over the years.
Being an active fly-fisher, she found out about Casting for Recovery and became an avid supporter of the organization. Casting for Recovery provides therapy and support for breast cancer victims. The organization discovered that the actions of fly casting are very therapeutic after surgery for breast cancer.
The latter years of Donna’s life were consumed by dementia, spending the last few years in memory care.
In lieu of flowers please make contributions to Casting for Recovery, Dementia Research, or AA.
Services will be private.
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