Virginia Mae "Jean" DeBonis Blakley

Virginia Mae (Jean) DeBonis Blakley

DOB September 18th, 1932

DOD June 11th, 2026

City: Fairfield Village, Layton, Utah

Jean was born to Mary and John DeBonis in Worcester, Massachusetts, both of whom were of Italian descent. John’s family came from the Caserta region in the mountains of Naples, while Mary Mancuso’s family was from the city of Pietraperzia in the mountainous region of the island of Sicily. Mary’s mother worked as a nurse, while her father worked in construction. As a young girl, Jean helped her father raise poultry during the war years and helped raise her siblings.

As the war ended and property became available in California, her father purchased a 40-acre grape farm and moved the family near to Sacramento, California in late 1945. There, besides helping her parents raise their children, and helping with farm activities, Jean attended high school & became greatly skilled in typing & shorthand while in high school.

After graduation, she was immediately hired at a junior college as a secretary the same month. She worked both part time and full time, as she raised her family for many of the following years.

She met her husband, John Hamilton Blakley, who had moved to California from eastern Tennessee. After marriage, they settled in a small unfinished home on her father’s farm, and later moved to Sacramento, where her husband worked for the Air Force at McClellan AFB.

She helped with the family business, which was a brass and aluminum foundry, and managed the books. Later, when her children were older, she began working as the secretary for Roseville High School, and moved to the position of secretary for the City of Roseville Finance Director. Jean loved people and was always helping someone who needed a helping hand.

Although raised as a Catholic, she attended several church denominations & latter became a member of the LDS church. She loved to dance and was active in a local square dance group. As a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, she served as a Stake Missionary for the Roseville, California Stake Center.

Throughout her life and consistently until her end, Jean was gifted with kindness, intelligence, an outward giving presence and a gift for dreams, visions, and interpretation of dreams, throughout her life. At the young age of 13, she was told she would be caring for another’s child, (which was true later in life as one of her three daughters passed away and she cared for her daughter’s daughter (Courtney) for 19 years (which was a blessing to both grandmother and granddaughter). Jean’s gift for interpretation of dreams was a giant blessing to her children’s lives, many times over.

Truly, again and again, she played a pivotal role in her family’s lives, her children, her husband, her parents, and friends. We were all so deeply blessed by her.

Jean is preceded in death by her parents, John and Mary DeBonis, her sisters Mary DeBonis [sister], Rosemary Anthony [sister], John Blakley [husband], Shirley Blakley [daughter], Sandra Felce Blakley [daughter in law], Berkley Spoor [brother-in-law].

She is survived by John DeBonis [brother] (Alice), Stella Spoor [sister], and children, Michael Blakley (Sheila), Daniel Blakley, Ruthanne Sperry (Robert), Gloria Sanders (Monte). Seventeen grandchildren, forty great grandchildren and two great, great grandchildren.

Memorial Services will be held on June 19, 2026, at 11:00 am, Smith Lane Ward, 1449 Thoroughbred Drive, in Kaysville, Utah. A viewing will be held prior to the services at the church from 9:45-10:45 am. Interment will follow at the Clinton City Cemetery, 813 North 750 West, Clinton, Utah.