Jean Key Adams Hendersonville, North Carolina, died Tuesday, October 8, 2024, at Elizabeth House of Four Seasons Hospice. She was 84 years old.
Born March 17, 1940, in Collettsville, North Carolina (Caldwell County), she is survived by her children Dana and Kevin. She is also survived by two sisters and a brother of Caldwell County. She was preceded in death by Gene Adams who was her husband of 62 years, by her parents, and by one brother.
Jean graduated valedictorian from her Collettsville High School class in 1958. A lifelong supporter and advocate of learning and education, she held teachers of children in high regard. Two teachers, in particular, had a deep impact on her. One was her high school English teacher and the other was a kindergarten teacher she served alongside in the classroom in the late 1960s. Over the years she spoke repeatedly and fondly of their caring and mentoring influence in her life.
Over the years, Jean worked in a variety of jobs, most of them having a strong interpersonal component. Examples included jobs she held as receptionist in the old Pardee Hospital Emergency Room in Hendersonville, surgical coordinator for an ophthalmologist, and as aide to the aforementioned kindergarten teacher in Abingdon, VA. She always seemed to find a way to be with people who may not be having a great day yet seemed to be able to help them cope with the challenges that were facing them.
One of the most significant yet most underacknowledged places of service was to the church. Quite often, Jean found herself supporting some of the most underserved parts of the ministry of the church, sometimes out of desire and other times out of necessity. She spent many hours over many years helping children and teenagers find and know their faith and who they were.
Perhaps the two things she was most known for was a love of music and a love of story. While she enjoyed a variety of music, the songs and melodies that spoke to her most deeply went back to her roots in the Western North Carolina Mountains. Be it Baptist hymnody, country music of the 1920s-1950s, or bluegrass fiddle and banjo, music was always in her mind and in her heart. Through music she articulated how she felt, how she coped, what made her happy, sad, scared, and angry.
Anyone who knew Jean, knew she was never far away from a story. In fact, it seemed she entered the world through the medium of story. The story itself may be fact or fancy. Still, for Jean, truth seemed buried somewhere inside the tale and inside the telling even if that truth was only hers for the knowing. Her most told stories centered around themes of the love of children, the love of animals, the love of significant people in her life. The stories, and her telling of them, told us more about her than they did about the actual subjects of the tales themselves. In and through story, Jean described her own journey through life. This journey was filled with joys and disappointments, failures and successes, and the happiness and anguish of the loves in her life. She experienced her life through music, through service, and through story. And it was a life well lived.
A Service of Remembrance celebrating the life of Jean Adams will be at First Baptist Church of Hendersonville, North Carolina on Sunday, November 10, 2024, at 2:00 pm in the main sanctuary. The immediate family will be receiving guests and other family just prior to and immediately following the service.
Condolences may be sent to the Adams family at www.jacksonfuneralservice.com or C/O Jackson Funeral Service 1101 Greenville Highway, Hendersonville, NC 28792. Please include the name of the deceased on the condolence.