Jewell Vaught

Cleveland, Tenn.

Jewell Lee Dennis Vaught went home to be with her Lord on her 95th birthday, Thursday, August 22, 2024.

Born in Princeton, WV, to parents Lee Warren and Captolia Melviney Dennis, she attended Mercer Elementary, and Princeton High schools. Always good with numbers, she began working at Tomchin Furniture, and soon became their bookkeeper. She met Laud O. Vaught, also of Princeton, and they married on May 11th, 1952, at which time she joined her husband in North Carolina where he pastored the Garner Church of God. They were soon invited to Minot, ND, to join the faculty and staff of Northwest Bible College. They moved there in the fall of 1953, and stayed until 1980. During those years, he became president of the college and she took on many roles there and in the community, while also working for a time as bookkeeper for Broten Lumber Co. Among those activities were, president’s wife, Student Wives Club advisor, PTA president, and Christian Women’s Club president. Also while there, she earned a B.S. in Business Education degree from Minot State, and did substitute and supply teaching in business classes at Minot High School.

She was very active in the Campus Church of God, where she was several times the president of the Ladies’ Willing Worker Band. Their semi-annual bake sales were well-known throughout the city, and Jewell’s pecan pies were the main attraction, with pre orders from many regular customers.

She was a wonderful mother to four children, Melinda Jewell Norton Braunstein (Jack) of Cleveland, Laud Lee Vaught (Pam) of Cleveland, Denice Lynn Wanner (Tim) of Minot, ND (deceased), and Dennis Dwight Vaught of Vermilion, SD.

Coming to Cleveland, TN, in 1980, she began working at Church of God International Offices, and was soon appointed Executive Assistant to the Auditor for the denomination. She retired from that position in 1992. The following summer, she and her husband went to China for two months as instructors with the English Language Institute of China. In 2008, they became residents of Garden Plaza of Cleveland. Her husband passed away in 2015, and since 2016, she has been cared for by and in the home of her son, Laud, and his wife, Pamela Pressley Vaught.

Jewell was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, and her daughter, Denice. She is survived by her other three children and spouses, nine grandchildren (Aimee, Sarah, and Rebecca Norton; Eric, Evan, and Stephi Wanner; Kaylee, Madison, and Laud Christian Vaught), and 13 great-grandchildren.

She will be interred next to her husband, in Rose Lawn Cemetery of Princeton, WV. Their single headstone reads, “Together in marriage, together in parenting, together in ministry, together forever.”

The Remembrance of Life Service will be conducted on Friday, August 30, 2024, at 6 p.m., at North Cleveland Church of God, Dixon Chapel, with Dr. Jerald Daffe, and Dr. Welton Wriston officiating. Graveside services and Interment will be conducted on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, at 10 a.m. at Rose Lawn Cemetery, in Princeton, West Virginia, with Pastor J. B. Hurt officiating. The family request in lieu of flowers, Memorials be made to the Dr. Laud O. Vaught Scholarship, in care of Lee University, 1120 N. Ocoee Street, Cleveland, Tennessee 37311. The family will receive friends from 4 p.m. until 6 p.m., Friday at the North Cleveland Church of God, Dixon Chapel. The Jim Rush Funeral and Cremation Services North Ocoee Chapel has charge of the arrangements. You may share your condolences and your memories with the Vaught family at www.jimrushfh.com.

For family and friends who cannot attend the service, you can watch the service by livestream, by going to nccog.com and click on “live-stream.”

Published by The Minot Daily News, August 30, 2024.