Jean Gaston Woodward, 89, died July 24th , in her residence, at Stonebridge at Montgomery, Montgomery Township, NJ, of natural causes.

Born Olive Jean Gaston in Fairhope, Al, she attended the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education. Her father, James E. Gaston, owned a Ford dealership in the center of town. Beginning with the Model T, the rapid growth of the automobile in America would feed the national appetite for petroleum, which continues to this day. A talented electrical engineer from Davis, Oklahoma found employment with an oil company as a member of a team prospecting for oil, which was sent to Alabama to do testing in Mobile Bay. Oakley MacDonald (Woody) Woodward would meet Jean there and they fell very much in love not long after. In 1939 they were married. The oil prospecting work would take them to Mississippi for a year and then to Trinidad. Woody's electrical engineering degree would next take them to Princeton, NJ, and the David Sarnoff Research Center (RCA). The small group of antenna engineers and their wives worked and played together. Jean was a frequent and popular hostess at their frequent gatherings and was stimulated by their interests and the Princeton culture. She became a skilled bird-watcher and mushroom collector and her green thumb was evident in the colors and shades that rimmed the back yard of her home. She made many of her own garments in the period of WWII when so many things were rationed and filled the kitchen pantry with jars of preserves. Her skills in the kitchen drew upon her Southern heritage and her meals were anticipated and enjoyed by many.

In 1943, she gave birth to her son James G. (Jim) Woodward and three years later her daughter Judith Mary (Judy) Woodward. When the children were attending Nassau Street School, she began working at the Princeton University Store, when it was a small operation behind Nassau hall and continued there for three decades. She became a member of the Nassau Club, the Present Day Club and the Princeton Garden Club. After Woody retired from RCA, they would travel together to Norway, Kenya and Alaska. Several years after suffering a stroke, Woody died in 1995 and a few years later Jean moved into Stonebridge.

She is survived by her daughter Judy, her son, Jim, granddaughter, Margaret Kent Woodward, step-grandson, Nathan Kent and a sister Clara Louise Wengert.

Donations in her memory may be made to the Marietta Johnson School of Organic Education, 8 Marietta Drive, Fairhope, Al, 36532

Private services were entrusted to the Kimble Funeral Home, 1 Hamilton Avenue, Princeton, NJ 08542