Jeanette Cummings 1940-2016
Jeanette Nioce Cummings, 76, of Yakima, Wash., passed away peacefully surrounded by her family on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2016. Her fight with Alzheimer’s ended.
Born July 15, 1940, to Joe and Alice Nioce, in Holton, she was raised on the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation Reservation, the youngest of six siblings. She is preceded in death by her parents and her sisters, Isabel Thomas, Vivian Nioce, Vestina Nonken and Inez Aikin; a brother, Edgar Nioce; and a granddaughter, Sarah Marshall Partlow. She is survived by her sister Loretta Rosenthal of Cherokee, Iowa.
After graduating from Holton High, she married Theodore (Ted) Cummings at Our Lady of Snows Catholic Church on June 6, 1959. Together they raised two daughters, Jo Ann Marshall (Kevin) of Yakima, Wash., and Vivian Alexander (Gregg) of Hutchinson. The family grew to include seven grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.
Over the next 57 years together, they ran a business, nurtured a family, traveled and played music across the U.S. in their band “The Good Timers.” Jeanette’s life was full of family, friends, art, music, dancing and prayer. And in her travels she enjoyed researching Potawatomi tribal genealogy. Wherever she traveled she took time to work in the Catholic Church. And she always had her prayer lists from those requesting prayer. We all knew we could count on her to pray.
Jeanette was honored in a funeral Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Lynden, Wash., on Friday, Sept. 16, 2016, with family attending and serving. Nephew Scott Aikin, a deacon, gave the blessing at the Ten Mile Cementery gravesite. He sang a blessing song using a Potawatomi drum and the drum stick of her father’s. We were blessed by the sight of two eagles that circled above the trees as the song filled the valley. Then the family gathered to sing the Blessing song and laid down roses. Blessed are they who mourn for they will be comforted — Matthew 5:4.
(PAID OBITUARY)
