LeDora Frances (Sall y) Bishop Obituary
LeDora Frances Jones "Sally" Bishop passed away July 12, 2017. She was born on Aug. 14, 1925, the middle child of Charles Everett Jones and Blanche Dugger Jones in Neodesha, Kansas. She grew up in Neodesha on a farm with two brothers, Kesner and Charles Arthur, whom she called Bub. Her father nicknamed her "Sally" at birth.
She went to Kansas State University and met her husband Ernest W. Bishop. They married in San Antonio, Texas, in 1944, while he was stationed there during WWII. After the war they finished college together and graduated in 1949 from KSU. Their first son, Reggie, died just a few hours after he was born. They lived a brief time in Guam and later settled in Florida, where Ernie was a geologist and she kept the home.
They had two daughters, Julie and Jill. She enjoyed photography as a hobby and developed her own photographs. In 1970 the family moved to Arizona and later she and Ernie divorced. She and her daughters stayed with her mother, Blanche, and then bought a home in Mesa. Sally opened "The Quaint Shop" on Horne, just south of Broadway in Mesa and did doll repair.
She loved dolls, making them, collecting them and learning about them. Many people called her the "doll lady." She was involved in several doll clubs and belonged to the United Federation of Doll Clubs. She attended 26 doll conventions around the country and sold her handmade dolls, clothes and other items at craft shows for many years.
Sally went back to school at Arizona State University and took graduate library classes, working part-time at ASU in Hayden library. After finishing the program she got a job at Mesa Public Library and was later promoted to librarian. She loved helping people doing research and to find just the right information or book they were looking for.
She retired in 1987. After retirement, she lived in Prescott for 16 years in a log house with a great view and a fireplace. As her health began to decline, she moved back to Mesa to be near Jill and her family. She began to slow down but still loved sewing and crafting, going to Goodwill, feeding the birds in her yard, doing word puzzles, drinking her black coffee and enjoying her family.
She lived a full life but experienced many challenges and great loses, but, despite all of that, she always said "Life is good!" She will be missed by her family, daughters Julie, Jill (Scott) Adair, grandchildren Clint (Becky), Krystal (Devin) Hon, and Justin. She loved the next generation of family, Clint's two boys, Calvin and Elliott, and Krystal's two girls, Madeline and Holly.
Also special to her were her niece Kristy (Bud) Strom and nephew Greg Jones. And she enjoyed visits from her cousin Bill (Rae Ann) Dugger from Washington. She was preceded in death by her parents and both brothers.
