Woman who helped lead charity remembered

Jean Howard, director of the Mary Lee Tucker Clothea-Child program during the 1970s, died March 31 in Rock Island, Tenn. She was 93.

Howard became the face of the Clothe-a-Child, which provides school-aged children with warm clothes for the winter, in October 1973.

She didn’t seek the job, but she said in a 1973 interview with The Journal, predecessor to The Morning Journal, that people kept telling her she could perform the duties of coordinating the Clothe-a-Child program.

So, Howard, a mother of five adult children, took on the job.

During a November 1975 interview with The Journal, Howard recalled having a hard life as a young girl and money was not plentiful in her family.

She said she and her six brothers and sisters looked forward to the occasional gifts of food, clothes and shoes sent to them from relatives. When Howard became the face of the Mary Lee Tucker Clothe-a-Child and the Christmas season arrived, she said she looked forward to helping the youngsters.

“It’s a feeling of fulfillment,” Howard told The Journal in 1975. “I feel I’m doing something worthwhile.”

When Howard was 12 years old, her mother died and she was bounced around from relative to relative before moving to Lorain, according to her daughter Sandra Thomas, who lives in Rock Island. Howard, who suffered from dementia, lived with Thomas.

Howard graduated from Lorain High School around 1944.

“She was so proud to be a graduate of Lorain High School,” Thomas said. “She really appreciated education.”

Howard’s value of education is something she took pride in passing to her children, her daughter said.

“She instilled in us the importance of education,” Thomas said. “In fact, all of us are involved with education.”

After high school, Howard worked for a short time at the old American Co. in Lorain. She also spent 15 years as an nurse’s assistant at the former St. Joseph Hospital, previously located at Broadway and West 21st Street. The building was demolished in 2015.

Aside from her role as face of the Mary Lee Tucker program, Howard contributed to the community, Thomas said.

“She was very involved with the community, helping children and adults,” her daughter said.

Howard