What a little doll…Mandy Edwards.
Graduation photo.
Mandy and Casey Jones with all kids.
Mandy Jones Quarles with 2nd husband Bob.
Mandy was born September 22, 1926 and died May 14, 1994. She married Keith (Casey) Dwain Jones on July13, 1946. Casey and Mandy are both buried in the Lorimor, Iowa Cemetery.
After graduation, Mandy attended beauty school in Des Moines. She then met and married Casey Jones. Her first working venture was a small beauty shop established in her home in Lorimor, Iowa and Casey worked as a truck driver at the local feed store. From Lorimor, they moved to a farm northwest of Bondurant, Iowa, where Casey worked as a farm hand. after a few years he started working at the elevator in town, so they moved into Bondurant and Mandy established a beauty shop up town.
She became active in church and school functions. Casey later became the manager of the elevator in Bondurant. During his stint as manager, they also acquired the Mitchellville and Altoona Elevators. In 1959, Casey met with Russian Premier Khrushchev, when the Premier visited various farms in the state of Iowa.
In 1965 the family moved to Johnston, Iowa and Casey when to work for a family friend, sandblasting gas tanks in a 4-state area. Mandy went to work for the State of Iowa. In 1967, they purchased a small farm West of Osceola, Iowa and settled, raising pigs as a hobby.
As Casey’s health failed, they moved to town until his death in 1980.
Following his death, Mandy purchased a larger home and established “Grandma’s House”, an in-home business. She provided assisted living” services for clients and was very successful.
Mandy had been a widow for several years when she became reacquainted with Bob Quarles. Bob and his wife had been friends with Mandy and Casey for many years. Bob had lost his wife, and he and Mandy married and moved to Bob’s home in Lamar, Missouri. where had an established auto mechanics shop. Mandy lived there, happily tending gardens and crocheting.
Mandy died on May 14, 1994.
Before I add the kids, I will tell some name stories. From Sherry
- Mom thought her birth certificate had Myrtiss as her first name. The stories were many and some very funny, but she never went by that name. She gained the nickname Mandy along the way. When I worked for the Iowa State Health Department, it worked in the vital records department and looked up her birth certificate and it only read M. as the first name.
- Dad’s name was Keith Dwain. Most called him Keith except for his mother who called him Dwain. He also picked up a nickname, Casey. That stuck and most people knew him as Casey Jones. Once when Ron was rather young, Grandma Weininger called asking for Dwain. Ron quickly informed her there was no Dwain that lived there and hung up.
- Because Mom and Dad both had nicknames, they chose to name us kids nicknames. Ricki is not Richard, Danny not Daniel, Ronnie not Ronald. As they got older, Rick dropped the i and Ron dropped the nie.
- There was purpose in each of the boys’ names. Ricki Dwain had dad’s middle name; Danny Keith, Dad’s first name as a middle; Kelley Dean Dad’s initials and Ron, just his first initial as his middle initial, (no name).
- Ron’s middle initial of K. brings up a fun story. When he was young, his sister may have convinced him that his middle name was Kididdlehopper and his parents were embarrassed to put it on his birth certificate. It seems he believed it until he was about 10 or 11. He even joked about it and told everyone he could even spell it. To this day her remembers how to spell it…K i hopper with a diddle in the middle.
