Obituary of Lorana Ray Jacobs

Surrounded by loved ones, Lorana Ray Jacobs, age 95, passed away peacefully at her home in Santa Cruz where she had lived since 1946. Born June 1, 1923 in Delhi, Oklahoma, Lorana was the youngest of 4 siblings born to Allen Moore and Edna Carrie Young Moore.

Reading like a chapter from the Grapes of Wrath, Lorana’s family was living in Oklahoma when the Great Depression forced them to leave and emigrate to California with all their possessions in the back of a model T Ford truck. Money, food and jobs were scarce, but the family survived picking cotton and other seasonal crops and eventually settled in Monterey. Lorana was a deeply committed Christian all her life, a founding member of the Pacific Grove Church of Christ and taught Sunday School starting at age 14. She was also the first member to be married in what was then a new church building. Lorana never finished high school, but she exhibited an early interest and talent in hair dressing. With her mom working in the fish cannery in Monterey, both brothers in the Army fighting in North Africa and Europe, Lorana opened a beauty salon as a licensed beautician in 1942 and continued working until 1946.

At a church song service in Pacific Grove in March 1946, Lorana was introduced to Lowell Jacobs, a native Santa Cruzan having recently returned from the war.  Soon after, Lowell proposed, Lorana accepted, and they were married June 14, 1946.They spent their honeymoon in a cabin in Pinecrest, California and returned there consistently during the summer for the next 65 years.

Except for a brief stint during the Korean War, Lorana would identify Santa Cruz as her home for the rest of her life and remained married to her loving husband, Lowell for 65 years. Lorana enjoyed growing flowers and tending her garden, walking her dog and consistently used a treadmill for exercise until she was 90!

Lorana Ray Jacobs, by the time she died, was known as “Ma” to 4 generations of the Jacobs family and revered as the matriarch for whom several of her descendants bore her middle name,

Ray, in her honor. As the last of her siblings to pass from this life into the next, I’m quite certain Heaven is a reality for her and her eternal Father will greet her with a warm hug as she arrives. I’m also certain she will look for her husband, Lowell, who will remind her if she hadn’t eaten so much oatmeal, peaches, strawberries and fish, she could have been there sooner!

Lorana was preceded in death by both parents, Allen Moore and Edna Carrie Young Moore/Laney, her husband, Lowell Jacobs, a son, Bradley Paul Jacobs and her three siblings: Thelbert Ronald Moore (Betty), Dewey Moore (Lois) and Clellave Boor (Albert) and 8 other sisters-in-law and brothers in law. She is survived by two sons and their wives, Bruce and Kathy Jacobs, Brent and Patti Jacobs, 4 grandchildren and their spouses, 8 great grand children, two great great grandchildren and numerous nieces and nephews.

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Lorana Jacobs, please visit Tribute Store