By Robyn Murray
Born and raised in Aurora, Nebraska, Doris Jones married her high school sweetheart, Lyle, in 1954. For 68 years, they lived, loved and worked together, raising three children in Lincoln.
Two years ago, Lyle passed away from esophageal cancer. The loss was devastating, but it wasn’t the first time — and it wouldn’t be the last — that cancer extended its deadly grasp into her family’s life. Doris, a Burnett Society member, had already lost her father and father-in-law to cancer. She had watched her oldest daughter fight thyroid cancer and skin cancer and her second daughter endure a double mastectomy to fight a cancer diagnosis.
Those experiences inspired Doris to do what she could to give back, to make whatever impact, large or small, to help in the global fight against the ravages of cancer, which continues to be a leading cause of death worldwide. After speaking with a development officer at the University of Nebraska Foundation, who has become a good friend, Doris decided to direct two insurance policies to the University of Nebraska Medical Center, establishing the Lyle M. and Doris V. Jones Memorial Cancer Research Fund.
“I got really excited and decided this is what I want to do,” Doris said. “It’s just so good to give. It’s a good feeling.”
Giving back was always part of Doris and Lyle’s life. They began with a gift to the CEDARS Home for Children, after their granddaughter died from a surgical error, and they never turned back.
“We haven’t taken any trips around the world, and I don’t drive a Cadillac, but I think we’ve really helped a lot of people through the years,” Doris said. “I think it’s a wonderful way to give money that you don’t really need yourself.”
Doris said her hope is that someday cancer will be eliminated, and the suffering will end.
“That’s a really big dream, of course,” she said, “but it’s just such an awful thing to see people suffer from. And because it’s been so prevalent with people in my own life, if I can be of help in any way, that’s really important to me.”
