Obituary of Jeanette Margaret Gill

Jeanette’s family includes her husband, Dr. Raymond D. Gill; sons and their wives, Dr. Thomas J. and Deborah Gill, and Dr. R. William and Kathy Gill all of Coralville; daughter and her husband, Margaret and Dave Mellecker also of Coralville; nine grandchildren, Anne, Margaret, Doug, Mary, Rachel, Dan, Kelly, Chloe, and Lisa; and one great-granddaughter, Madeline. Jeanette Margaret Wood was born January 15, 1921 in Stuart, Iowa the daughter of William and Gladys (Sorrell) Wood. She graduated from Corwith High School in 1939 and from the School of Nursing at the University of Iowa in 1942. During World War II, she was a nurse in the United States Navy. On December 9, 1944, she married Raymond D. Gill in Williamsburg, VA. The couple returned to Iowa where they lived in Corwith until moving to Iowa City in 1952. In 1956, they moved to Coralville where here husband started his dentistry practice. For a number of years she worked as a nurse in the eye department of the University of Iowa Hospitals. Here she was on the transplant team with Dr. Alson Braley that performed the first cornea transplant at the hospital. Her love of family, especially her grandchildren was the light in her life. She enjoyed antiques, collecting and restoring them, driving her Porsche, walking to many of the home Hawkeye Football games with her husband, and tending to her flowers, all brought great joy and fun to her life. In Lieu of flowers, memorial donations in Jeanette’s memory may be made to the Iowa Alzheimer’s Foundation or Iowa City Hospice.