Mrs. Jean Marie Thomas Mangum died peacefully on January 7th, 2025 at Riverside Senior Living in Decatur, Alabama at the age of 96. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland on January 19th, 1928. After contracting polio at age 9, she spent two years at Kernan’s Children’s Hospital in Baltimore, before eventually being able to walk again. She resumed her studies and took an accelerated program in high school that allowed her to enter the University of Maryland with one year of college credit. Jean majored in chemistry and in Qualitative Chemistry class met her future husband, Grafton F. Mangum, Jr. (Bert). They were married in 1949. After graduating with a degree in Chemistry she worked for a short time at Johns Hopkins Hospital as a research assistant.
In 1952, Jean, Bert and two children moved to Huntsville, Alabama where Bert, also a chemist, accepted a position in the defense industry with Thiokol Chemical Corporation. In Huntsville, Jean worked at home as their family grew to 6 children. As the children grew older, she took an active role in leading local Girl Scout troops, membership in the PTA, and began substitute teaching. She was a committed member of Trinity Methodist Church serving as a Sunday School teacher, participating in Meals on Wheels and even in her later years contacting other home-bound members to check on them. For her own creative development, she returned to an earlier hobby of ceramics and expanded into painting porcelain, especially birds. Her hobby grew as she participated in craft shows and taught others how to paint porcelain. Jean and Bert were founding members of the Huntsville Botanical Garden. They considered gardening a way of communing with God and together they created a beautiful garden at their home.
Jean is preceded in death by her parents, Charles E. Thomas Sr. and Edith C. Sohn Thomas; her husband; and eldest daughter, Christine Elliott. She is survived by her brother, Charles E. Thomas Jr. and wife Ann; her son-in-law Warren, her daughter Jacqueline, daughter Barbara (husband Ed), daughter Patricia, son Grafton III (wife Julie) and daughter Jeanette (husband Kent), 15 grandchildren: Kristin, Lezlee, Jennifer, Jamila, Niki, LaLonnie, Jean, Matthew, Lara, Liam, Stephanie, Samantha, Ben, Livia, and Eli plus 15 great grandchildren. Jean was extremely proud of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren and loved each of them very much.
The funeral will be held at Laughlin Service Funeral Home in Huntsville on Tuesday, January 14th, 2025. Visitation is from 11-1PM, with a chapel service starting at 1PM. Burial at Maple Hill Cemetery to follow.
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the annual fund of the Huntsville Botanical Garden in the name of Jean Mangum (http://hsvbg.org).
