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Show Jane Thompson Bleak, 96, Dixie Pioneer, Dies Here Wednesday Evening Death came at 6:15 p.m., Wednesday Wed-nesday to Jane Thompson Bleak, 96, after a short illness, since Friday Fri-day evening, when she fell and injured her leg, while walking from one room to the other. Funeral Fun-eral services will be held in the St. George stake Tabernacle at 4 p.m., Friday, under the direction direc-tion of Pres. Harold S. Snow and Bishop Andrew McArthur of the St. George South ward. Born in Birmingham, England, Dec. 1, 1845, she was the fifth child of Joseph Lewis and Penelope Pen-elope Thompson. Her father was an employee of Ames and Cater, famous London goldsmiths, and in . 1854 was sent by them to America to install equipment for Gorham company in Providence, R. I. Here, Jane was then aged 9, learned to dance, skate, ride horseback, and handle a gun, and at the age of 13, received a chef's certificate for the making of decorated pastries. past-ries. In October of 1861, she arrived n Salt Lake City with her brother, William H. Thompson and wife, having obtained permission from her parents to visit over the winter with former London fr'ends, James T. Bleak and fam-ilv- She had just been in Salt Lake City two weeks when Brig-( Brig-( Continued on page four) Jane Bleak Dies (Continued from first page) ham Young called the pioneers to the Dixie cotton mission and under counsel of that leader, became the plural wife of Mr. Bleak and came with them to Dixie. Here, she helped to make her own first abode, a small dugout on the lot where her colonial type home still stands. During the building of the St. George Temple, she was drawn into service as a cook for the workmn, continuing to serve in that capacity long after the Temple was completed and was an ordinance worker at the Temple for nearly 60 years, being then aged 88. For the past 15 years her daughter, Rose B. Ramsey has lived with and cared for her. She has also been active as a Relief Re-lief Society teacher and was a skilled seamstress. She has cro-chted cro-chted many yards of lace for her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and made hunderds of cakes, ornately decorated, for weddings and other events, teaching teach-ing this art to several local women. One of these elaborate cakes which won the County Fair prize in 1899 is still on exhibit in the McQuarrie Memorial hall, along with the diploma she re-ceeived re-ceeived at that time. She made the fruit cake for her last anniversary, anni-versary, Dec. 1, 1941. She has been mentally alert until un-til this recent illness, enjoying the visit of relatives and friends. Many tourists have enjoyed making mak-ing her acquaintance. Six of her thirteen children are still living. These are Rose B. Ramsey, Samuel T. Bleak and Lewis Bleak, all of St. George; Mrs. W. Y. Teetzel of Long Beach, Calif.; 54 grandchildren, 96 greatgrandchildren great-grandchildren and 11 great-greatgrandchildren. Friends may call at the family home from 10 a. m., to funeral time. room. Mrs. W. A. Kemp gave the play, "New Fires", and Mrs. H. C. Thomas gave a tribute to mothers. A girls' chorus under the direction of Mrs. Mae Pace, sang two numbers. num-bers. The club colors of gold and white were carried out in all appointments ap-pointments of the beautifully decorated dec-orated tea table. Mrs. Roxey Rom-ney Rom-ney and Mrs. Pace, honorary members mem-bers poured. Mesdames LaVon McQuaid, Robert McComb, George Pace, Lee Esplin and Newell R. Frei, served. Hostesses for the afternoon . were Mrs. Frei and Mrs. L. A. Porter. |