Jean Bone
Jean Ward Bone, who served the Menlo Park Historical Association devotedly for many years, died Jan. 6 at Canyon House in Menlo Park after a long illness. She was 89.
Ms. Bone was born in Manila in the Philippine Islands, where her father, Adrian F. Ward, was director of welfare for the Knights of Columbus at the U.S. Army base in World War I. In 1925 the family moved to Menlo Park, where Mr. Ward worked at the veterans hospital and later became health and welfare director for San Mateo County.
Ms. Bone graduated from St. Joseph’s Elementary School in Atherton, Mercy High School in Burlingame, and San Jose State University, where she received a bachelor of arts degree in 1941.
She worked as an administrative secretary at Dibble Hospital and at Ames Aeronautical Laboratory in Mountain View until joining the U.S. State Department. In the 1950s and 1960s, she worked at embassies in Rio de Janeiro, Saigon, Teheran, Salisbury (Rhodesia) and Ouagadougou, Africa, sometimes serving as a private secretary to ambassadors.
She married Robert Bone, also a State Department employee, in Saigon in 1956. In 1968 Mr. Bone died while on furlough in Menlo Park. Ms. Bone then worked for Varian Associates in Palo Alto until retiring in 1981.
After retiring, she was active in many local organizations including the chaplaincy service at Stanford Medical Center; Oakwood, a retirement home and infirmary for the Religious of the Sacred Heart in Atherton; and, especially, the Menlo Park Historical Association. She was proud to receive an emeritus award from the association at her retirement, says her brother, Adrian Ward.
Throughout her lifetime, she was interested in travel, literature, sports and her religion, and she had great affection for friends, says Mr. Ward, her only survivor.
Following a Mass of Christian burial on Jan. 9, Ms. Bone was buried at her family’s plot at Santa Clara Mission Cemetery.
Frances Blair Awbrey
A memorial service for Frances Blair Awbrey will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, at the Saratoga Federated Church chapel, 20390 Park Place in Saratoga. Ms. Awbrey died Dec. 21 in Gustavus, Alaska, after a two-year battle with breast cancer. She was 50.
Ms. Awbrey, a fifth-generation Californian, was born in Berkeley and moved to Atherton when she was in eighth grade. She graduated from Menlo-Atherton High School, and attended the University of Puget Sound, the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, and the Cordon Bleu in Paris.
Her skill as a chef was her passport to a lifetime of traveling adventures, say family members. Among the places she lived in were San Francisco, London, Gstaad, Madrid, Marbella, New York City, Nantucket, Anchorage, and San Miguel de Allende.
Ms. Awbrey migrated to the small town of Gustavus on Glacier Bay in Alaska, where she became part of the community. She spent most winters in Mexico, driving the miles from Alaska to Mexico with her dog, Aria.
She was an avid fly fisherman and a formidable Scrabble player, and she enjoyed playing the cello, say family members. She volunteered at the Mission Queretaro, serving the Otomi people of central Mexico.
Surviving Ms. Awbrey are her parents, William and Mary Stuart Awbrey of Atherton; brother Craig Awbrey of Saratoga; and sister Lisa Awbrey of San Francisco.
Memorials in her name may be made to Breast Cancer Connections, 390 Cambridge Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94306; KARA, 457 Kingsley Ave., Palo Alto, CA 94301; or the Palo Alto Medical Foundation, 795 El Camino Real, Palo Alto, CA 94301.
Martha Arthur
Martha Anne Arthur, a resident of Menlo Park since 2006, died Jan. 2 at her home at the age of 75. Ms. Arthur had been living at the home of her daughter and son-in-law Sandra and Lewis Darrow since moving from Northfield, Minnesota.
Ms. Arthur was born in Washington, D.C., grew up in Columbus, Ohio, and attended Antioch College. She also studied at the University of Connecticut and the University of Vienna, and graduated from the University of Minnesota.
Married to Professor Hans Wendt, she raised three children. In her 40s, she studied to become a nurse and began a 20-year career as a registered nurse in hospital psychiatric departments.
A second marriage to Robert Arthur lasted 23 years until his death in 2003.
Ms. Arthur was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church and attended Rosener House. She expressed her creative gifts as a painter, quilter and antique collector.
She is survived by her children, Alexander Wendt, Christopher Wendt, and Sandra Darrow; sister Joan Rice; and seven grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held All Saints Church in Northfield, Minnesota, on Jan. 24.
Margaret Tiffany
A celebration of the life of Margaret Watson Clark Tiffany of Woodside will be held at 3 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 31, at Woodside Village Church. Ms. Tiffany died Dec. 29 after a short illness. She was 91.
Ms. Tiffany was a collector of antique furniture and porcelain. Until recently, she participated in many antique shows in the Bay Area and occasionally lent pieces to San Francisco museums for exhibition.
Born in Virginia, Ms. Tiffany graduated from Mary Washington College. She married Forrest Fraser Tiffany in 1941, two days after Pearl Harbor. The family lived in Connecticut before moving to Woodside in 1963. Ms. Tiffany was an accomplished hostess and entertainer, say family members. She performed with the Woodside Village Players, and her renditions of “Five Dollar Shoes Don’t Fit My Feet” and “Frankie and Johnny” at her 90th birthday celebration are immortalized on YouTube, says her daughter-in-law Terri Tiffany.
At the time of her death, Ms. Tiffany was active in the Woodside Village Church, the Glass & Decorative Arts Club of Garden House in Los Altos, and her bridge club.
She is survived by her son, Joseph Tiffany of Menlo Park; daughters Gretchen Hensel of Cincinnati, Ohio, and Beverly Tiffany of Los Angeles; brother Blake Clark and sisters Ava Spencer and Dr. Eloise Clark; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Donations in Ms. Tiffany’s name may be made to the Memorial Garden Fund at Woodside Village Church or to the Sequoia Hospital Foundation.
Memorial gathering for Walter Freeman Gamble
A gathering for family and friends is set for 2 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, at 513 Lexington Ave. in Menlo Park for Walter Freeman Gamble, 86, of Menlo Park, who died Jan. 13.
The Almanac will publish a complete obituary in a future edition.
