Irene J. Willoughby

Irene Jerry Willoughby (nee Martinez), 79 years old of College Park, Maryland, passed away on April 2, 2016. Jerry, as she was always called by her middle name, was born in Alamosa, Colorado, on November 18, 1936. At a very young age, Jerry and the Martinez family moved north to Denver. Jerry has two younger sisters Jean and Judy; two older sisters Pauline and Corrine; and four older brothers Willie, Ernie, Gilbert, and Reuben; and one younger brother, Jayson. Jerry was very independent and responsible from a young age. With both parents working multiple jobs, big sister Jerry was often like a second mother as she looked after her younger sisters. She attended and graduated from West Senior High School in Denver. Later Jerry attended and graduated from Mercy Hospital Nursing School and fulfilled her dream of becoming a Registered Nurse. Following Nursing School, Jerry was inducted into the ranks of the U. S. Army Nurse Corps as a First Lieutenant at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas. She would later be assigned to Fort Jackson in Columbia, South Carolina, where she met and married Thomas Miller Willoughby, a Second Lieutenant Infantry Officer. While in South Carolina, they gave birth to their daughter, Shellie Rae. Tom was from the MD/DC area, so they moved back to the MD/DC area from South Carolina in 1964. Jerry worked briefly as a nurse in DC hospitals. Together Tom and Jerry founded the All Day Child Care Center, a nursery school for infants through preschool age with a Before and After School Program for school age children on the MD/DC border which was open for nearly 30 years. Jerry would later go to work for nearly another 15 years as a School Nurse in the Prince George's County Public Schools system, with most of that time spent at University Park Elementary School where her son Thomas had attended third through sixth grades. Jerry was a spirited, loving and caring mother and grandmother and is survived by her daughter Shellie Rae (Mike) Wilson and son Thomas Merrell Willoughby and granddaughters Suzanne Claire Wilson (David Titus) and Mary Beth Wilson. There will be a private service at Beall Funeral Home on Friday, March 26th at 1:00pm with visitation hours on Thursday, March 25th from 6pm-8pm. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the National Association of School Nurses (https://www.nasn.org/give) or to the Pregnancy Clinic Ministry (https://helphopeandhealing.org/give/)