Jean Cobb Rock

Jean Cobb Rock, 92, passed away on September 22, in the care of her three daughters and the excellent staff of Dominion Senior Living, Sevierville and Smoky Mountain Hospice. Jean was born September 11, 1927 at Langley Field, VA where her father was in service with the Air Corps of the U.S. Army. As a girl her homes were non-comm officer quarters in Virginia, the Panama Canal Zone, and Alabama before her family returned to a family farm in Cliffside, North Carolina. She attended Maryville College to study Home Economics, where she met her husband Alan Everett Rock of Blue Island, IL. He was a returning World War II vet, handsome and confident, and co-captain of the football team—leading to love and marriage lasting 59 years until his death in 2008. After college Jean trained to become a certified dietician, leading to professional work in hospitals, schools and the private sector. She and Alan raised three daughters, predetermining that they, too, would graduate from church-related liberal arts colleges. Jean will be remembered as an independent, self-reliant, opinionated lady. As a homemaker, she could cook wonderful Sunday dinners, sew Barbie doll and prom dresses, embroider, quilt, cross-stitch, braid wool rugs, strip wallpaper and furniture, snap beans in summer and shovel snow in winter. After retiring, she volunteered as a docent at the “rubber baron” mansion Stan Hywett in Akron, Ohio. This led to travel in Europe and the British Isles, and to a series of study and travel programs with Elder Hostel. Jean leaves behind daughters Leslie Zelenka of Columbia, SC; Allison Rock of San Carlos, CA; and Janet Rock of Pittman Center, TN, along with sons-in-laws Don Zelenka, Toph Wuthmann, and Steve Kemp. She also leaves grandchildren John Zelenka and his wife Kate (Ft. Lauderdale, FL); and Walter Wuthmann and Raina Wuthmann (Boston, MA). Jean specifically asked her family to forego a funeral or memorial gathering in her memory. She knew they would remember her stories and apt sayings for all occasions at family gatherings to come. Arrangements by Smith Funeral & Cremation Service, Maryville, 865-983-1000, www.SmithFuneralandCremation.com To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of Jean Cobb Rock please visit our Sympathy Store.