Jean Elizabeth Wilburn Danley passed away on January 22, 2021, in Memphis, Tennessee. She was born January 18, 1929, in Perry County, Tennessee, the only child of Jack and Ethel Ayers Wilburn.

Jean was educated in the public schools in Perry and Humphreys counties, graduating in 1946 from Waverly High School, where she was a member of the women’s basketball team.  She was awarded a Bachelor of Science degree in 1950 from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, with a major in Home Economics. While at UTK, she was active in collegiate aquatic sports.

After her college graduation, she served a brief tenure as principal and teacher at Hurricane Mills Elementary School. She then joined the UT Agricultural Extension Service where she enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a Home Demonstration Agent, serving first in Lawrence County and later in Wayne County. In 1964, Jean joined the Extension Service in Hickman County and was named County Agricultural Extension Leader there in 1984, the position from which she retired in 1989. She received the National Association of Extension Home Economists Award for Distinguished Service in 1973.

Jean was married to Noah Neal Danley in 1951, at the home of her parents, Fairview Hereford Farm, in Hurricane Mills, TN. They were blessed with two sons, James Wilburn Danley, Colonel, US Army (Ret.), and Gary Neal Danley, Lt. Colonel, US Army (Ret.). 

Jean was a loving mother and wife who enjoyed life to the fullest by sewing, quilting, playing golf, traveling, RV’ing, and avidly supporting UT sports—especially UT women’s basketball.  She loved time spent with her many friends and enjoyed meeting new people who immediately became friends. She was a long-time member of the First Baptist Church in Centerville, and later Fairfield Baptist Church, where she loved and enjoyed the Senior Ladies Sunday School Class. 

She was predeceased by her husband and parents.

She is survived by her sons: Jim (Beverly) of Germantown, TN, and Gary (Lora) of Richmond, KY; grandchildren: Jennifer Wheeler (Joe) of Dyersburg, TN, JP Danley of Los Angeles, CA, Andrea Francis (Kyle) of Lexington, KY, Neal Robert Danley of Richmond, KY, and great-grandchild, Judah Robert Francis of Lexington, KY. 

The family feels deep appreciation of Elsa Rodriguez for her long-time assistance of and friendship with Jean and Neal. 

The funeral will be a private graveside service with immediate family only at the O.A. Kirk Cemetery, Linden, Tennessee. The Rev. Bill McDonald will officiate.

A future Celebration of Life service, open to friends and family, will be held when pandemic-related mitigation efforts permit safe gatherings. Arrangements are with McDonald Funeral Home, Centerville, Tennessee. 

Memorials in Jean’s honor may be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation at www.jdrf.org, to Crossroads Hospice at www.crhcf.org, or to The Ayers Foundation www.theayersfoundation.org which offers college scholarships to Tennessee’s rural high school students, at: The Ayers Foundation, PO Box 756, Parsons, TN 38363.