Darla Jones

Darla Deane (Schoenfeld) Jones passed away during the morning hours on Sunday, December 15, 2024, at the age of 85 from Influenza A while living at Clearwater Health and Rehabilitation located in Orofino, Idaho, since June 2024.

Darla was born in Gillette, Wyoming on Wednesday, May 10, 1939, the only daughter of Edward Schoenfeld and Nellie Rose Eisele. In 1957 Darla graduated from Sir Francis Drake High School in San Rafael, Marin County, California, and went onto cosmetology school. While working as a hairdresser, she attended John Roberts Modeling School in San Francisco. In 1963 she moved to Reno, Nevada to be with family and worked at Harrah's Club for ten years as a cocktail waitress and modeled for luncheon fashion shows.

While working in Reno, at age 24, she met Dale Snyder only to move to Kamiah, Idaho 55 years later to find him the Mayor of Kamiah - Small World!

Darla then moved to Sacramento and met a group in a Dixieland Jazz Club and spent the next 15 years ragtime jazz dancing to twenties and thirties music from San Diego to Victoria, BC at festivals.

In 1983, she moved to the San Juan Islands in Washington and spent ten years tending bar at the American Legion.

When Darla was 50, she met her soulmate, Ernie Ziebell - they do exist! Their dream lasted two years when he passed away from cancer on December 23, 1990. Suddenly their dream was over. She wished they could have danced one more dance or drowned one more worm.

She rejoined her mother and stepfather, Phil Watson, in Portland, and went to work at the Eagles Lodge for 12 years as a bartender.

After her stepfather passed in August 2001, it was time to retire and spend time with her mother "the Duchess". They moved to Kamiah in 2004 to join dear friends and fishing buddies, Bill and Sherre Purdy. They made many new friends and it was a joy living in Kamiah and being a part of the Wild Red Hat girls and their Big Hat counterparts.

As many may know in 2021, Darla lost her mom to Covid. The Duchess was her best friend, fishing and pinnacle partner. She passed away two months short of 100 years.

Okay - for those of you who might want Darla to fill in the gaps - or not - there were no children; there were five marriages over 60 years, some good, some bad, and a few close calls! There were three husbands named Bob (that made life much easier). Bob #3 still called twice a month to do a welfare check after 25 years.

Darla's full life finally caught up to her - she didn't run out of dreams, just ran out of time. She was an avid Seahawks and Mariners fan.

Darla is preceded in death by her mother, Nellie (Eisele) Watson; her father, Edward Schoenfeld; stepfather Phil Watson, half-brother Ronald Bowman and his daughter, Sunni, uncles William Eisele, James Vines and George (Spud) Eisele.

She leaves behind uncles Jean Eisele (Arizona); Allen Eisele (Nevada), and aunt June (Eisele) Warren (Wyoming) and cousins from coast to coast, and a nephew, Troy Bowman (Reno), and two half-brothers, Robert Frey (Las Vegas) and Jim Frey (Minnesota).

A huge thank you to Mary and Paul Kirl and family for extended caregiving the past three years, and to her guardian angel, Kim Gleason.

Also, a special thank you to Jesse and Jennifer and the staff at Clearwater Health and Rehabilitation.

Cremation has taken place and interment will be in Sheridan, Wyoming in the spring of 2025.

Darla says Aloha from Hawaii as she drives off into the sunset!