Jolean Adams

JoLean Adams, 89, of Amarillo, Texas passed away on Tuesday, February 4, 2025. Graveside services will be at 11:00 A.M. on Saturday, February 8, 2025 at Cal Farley's Boys Ranch Alumni Cemetery. Memorial services will be at 2:00 P.M. on Saturday at Arden Road Baptist Church in Amarillo with Pastor Aaron Denson officiating. The family will receive friends from 5:00 to 7:00 P.M. on Friday, February 7, 2025 at Brooks Chapel in Canyon. JoLean was born on September 8, 1935 in Seminole, Texas to John B. and Gracie (Commander) Everett. She was the youngest of 13 children and raised alongside her siblings in Seminole, Texas. In 1963, she accepted a bookkeeping job at Cal Farley's Boys Ranch, where she met Benjamin Lavon "Lefty" Adams. He proposed to JoLean on Valentine's Day 1964, and they began their 41-year marriage on June 6, 1964 at Boys Ranch, Texas. They started out at Cal Farley's as alternate dorm parents at Jim Hill Dorm, and JoLean became a teacher's aide in the elementary school, assisting with the Reading Recovery program. She also held other positions during their tenure at the Ranch, such as Coach's wife, Team Momma, FCA Momma and late night cook (when boys needed to be fed after dining hall hours when Lefty's practices lasted too long, or he accidentally left the boys running on the river and forgot to go get them to tell them to head back to BR). JoLean and Lefty moved to Canyon, Texas in 1992, where she worked for Canyon ISD at Lakeview Elementary as a teacher's aide until 1996. JoLean was a member of First Baptist Church of Channing while living at Boys Ranch and served as the leader for Girls in Action, taking the girls to summer camp, helping with VBS, and teaching Sunday School. Upon moving to Canyon, they moved their membership to the First Baptist Church of Canyon where JoLean was actively involved in the jail ministry. Upon Lefty's passing, she then moved to Amarillo where she was a member of Arden Road Baptist Church until the present. JoLean's greatest passion was leading young people to Jesus. She and Lefty formed the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at Boys Ranch where the boys enjoyed her gift of hospitality, gathering for refreshments at her home after each monthly FCA meeting. When it came to sporting events for her children, grandchildren, and the many boys at the ranch, she fiercely defended and cheered on all her kids. You always knew she was there, being the 'Mom' in the stands, supporting each one with great enthusiasm. She always helped host the after-game celebrations at the Boys Center, making sure there was plenty of food for everyone, and cooked for the Cross-Country team on numerous occasions when their workout went past dinnertime. JoLean had many talents. Not only was she an amazing cook, but she was also an outstanding artist. She specialized in oil and acrylic painting but could paint anything from rocks to the many fire hydrants at Boys Ranch, murals for businesses in Amarillo and clothing and apparel. She painted the wrestling gear for the sons of professional wrestler Ricky Romero and he was known to frequent her painting, arts and crafts store at the Crafters Mall in Amarillo. She taught painting lessons at the Methodist Church in Channing and was a member of the Golden Spread Tole Painters Association. JoLean is preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Lefty Adams, and all 12 of her siblings, Coretta Robey, Mildred Grimstvedt, Annie Lee Hughes, Mary Helen Kitts, Dorothy Cotton, Gordon Everett, Herbert Everett, J.W. "Wilmer" Everett, Elmo Everett, Charles Everett, Johnny Everett and Bobby Jack Everett. Survivors include her sons, Benjamin Lavon Adams, II and wife, Mary Alice of Childress and Greg Adams of Carrollton; her daughter, Amy Brasher and husband, Derek of Amarillo; eight grandchildren, Trey and Illeatha Adams, Tyler Adams, and Thomas and Jenna Adams, all of Lubbock, Kirstin Adams of Quitman, Andrew and Sara Adams of Royce City, Baylee and Isaiah Torres of Carrollton, Aubrey Brasher and fiancé, Brendan Silvers, of Amarillo, and Samuel Brasher of Austin; ten great grandchildren, Aminah Lopez, Atraya Adams, Andy Adams, Sammy Adams, Wynter Adams, Myles Adams, Travis Adams, Bennett Torres, Everett Torres, and Evie Adams; and hundreds of Boys Ranch alumni on whom she had a profound and lasting impact and considered them her own. The family suggests memorials be to Cal Farley's Boys Ranch Alumni Association, PO Box 9435, Amarillo, TX 79105 or to Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ International) at give.cru.org or The Bible Live with Soapy Dollar at thebiblelive.com.