Vera Faye Keenum Jones, 83, of Millbrook, Alabama, passed away in Montgomery, Alabama, on September 14, 2024, after a short illness.
She grew up in Colbert County, Alabama, but lived all over the United States before retiring back in Alabama to be near family. Faye lived life with passion and fought idiocy and, even death itself, to the very end. She was feared by many but still remained fearful, herself, of AI and VR and even just video games, in general. She also despised cream or sugar in her coffee or anything but lemon in her unsweetened tea. It is very unlikely that artificial sweetener or sugar had any role in her demise. The salt she liked to put on the top of her beer cans or the butter and sour cream she slathered in her baked potatoes may have played a role, though. She lost many family and friends along the course of her long life but always celebrated the journey in stories that often seemed too-too. In the end, however, each story was unwaveringly proved to be true (it was fitting that she retired within five miles of the town of Spectre). That said, like many mothers and even more grandmothers, in her stories she often confused the who and the why but was always quite clear on the what.
She is survived by many family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers. She cared deeply for those she allowed into her circle of love and was unflagging in her desire to help and assist them with small actions that she made large in the doing. Though many would probably gather in her memory, for years she reiterated her desire for a lack of a mournful or even celebratory event to mark her passing. Though most of the oaths were said with fingers crossed, she was promised that would not occur so many times it seems a true crime to violate that wish. Further, she was undoubtedly one who would haunt the perpetrators for doing so if such a thing were possible.
She loved music of all kinds and listened to it in her pick-up. She loved trashy books but not trashy TV. She loved sports on TV but not in person. She had an unusual aversion to celebrating holidays (outside of a large collection of flamboyant door wreaths) and to going on vacations (except for that one eyewitness-verified trip she took to Apalachicola with a blind friend so that he could “look around” at what they had there) but loved to spend time with her family (at HER house, WITH coffee). She never saw the lack of an Easter basket or staying at home instead of going to the lake as a missed opportunity, though it was often argued to her that in retrospect she might see it differently in the afterlife. Unlike holidays and vacations, she really loved coffee. In, perhaps, the greatest tragedy of her existence, she was denied anything but decaf in the last week of her life though ultimately unsuccessful schemes had been made to rectify that.
Instead of flowers or donations to a cause in her memory, do the absolutely un-Faye thing and spend that money on a meal, trip, or special occasion with your own loved ones and then just remember her the next time you hear someone order their coffee black. Or, order a black coffee yourself, if you are Faye enough. Necessary anti-haunting disclaimer: No AI was used in the composition of this tribute.
Online condolences may be left for the family at morrisonfuneralhomes.com.
