02/16/2023

Obituary for Jeanne W. Babcock

Mother and Mother-in-Law of Mitch and Laurie Babcock, Owners of Davis-Babcock Funeral Home, Inc.

Services to celebrate the life of Jeanne Wood “Garney” Babcock, 89, of Mentor, will be at 4 PM on Wednesday, February 22, 2023 at Davis-Babcock Funeral Home, 4154 Clark Avenue, Willoughby. The Rev. Sondra D. Snode of Mentor United Methodist Church will officiate at the service.

The family will receive friends from 2-4 PM on Wednesday prior to the service at the funeral home.

Garney passed away peacefully on Tuesday, February 14, 2023 surrounded by her family.  Jeanne and Ray were named Garney and Gump by their oldest grandson, Ted.

Born August 29, 1933 in Cleveland, the daughter of James E. and Carolyn “Carrie” (Edmunds) Wood, she was a resident of Mentor for more than 60 years.

Jeanne volunteered for many years at Lake Health, at the former Lake East Hospital in Painesville, Lake West Hospital in Willoughby and The Mentor Medical Campus, where she greeted patients and families and assisted them with registration and directions. She also volunteered for several years as a Red Coat at Playhouse Square in Cleveland. 

She was a longtime member of Mentor United Methodist Church, where she served on and chaired the Altar Guild Committee and served on the Caring Methodists Committee for many years. 

Jeanne graduated from the former Willoughby Union High School class of 1951 and organized an annual class reunion and corn roast for more than 40 years. She joined the Lubrizol Corporation in Wickliffe, where she met her late husband, Ray. After raising her children, she worked for more than 20 years as the office manager for the former C.L. Kerr and Associates in Euclid and an additional number of years as a bookkeeper and later admissions director at the former Greenlawn Nursing Home in Concord Township.  She also worked several years as seasonal employee for the Mentor Post Office, selling stamps in a kiosk at Great Lakes Mall during the Christmas season.

Survivors are her children, Mitchell W. (Laurel) Babcock, Pamela W. (Allen) Francis and Polly Sue Poppy; grandchildren, Theodore F. Babcock (Alexandra Thompson), Corinne V. Babcock, Jocelyn C. Poppy (Anthony Brugh) and Jonathan C. Poppy (Sarah Harasyn).  Garney will be remembered for “YDKWICD”.

She was preceded in death by her husband of 62 years, Ray W. “Gump” Babcock on January 8, 2019.  Her parents, James E. and Carrie O. Wood and brother, E. William Wood are also deceased.  

Private family burial will be in Fowler’s Mill Cemetery, Munson Township.

In lieu of flowers, the family encourages contributions to Hospice of the Western Reserve, Inc., PO Box 72101, Cleveland, OH 44192-0002 (online at www.hospicewr.org/donate) or to Mentor United Methodist Church, 8600 Mentor Avenue, Mentor, OH 44060.