Regina “Jean” Cobb, a long-time resident of Poughkeepsie, and Pleasant Valley, N.Y. passed away at her home surrounded by family on Wednesday, November 27, 2024.

Jean Cobb was born on July 27, 1930, in Paterson, N.J., the daughter of Regina Edling and Harold B. Morris. She grew up in Glen Rock, N.J. and attended local schools. After secretarial training she worked at the Manhattan office of Bethlehem Steel, in the Cunard Building on lower Broadway. She always took the ferry during her commute from New Jersey—never the “tubes.”

On June 13, 1953, at St. Catherine’s Church in Glen Rock, N.J. she married IBM engineer Richard O. Cobb, formerly of Ridgewood, N.J., and joined him in Poughkeepsie where they raised their five children.

Jean loved traveling. At age two, she accompanied her grandfather Charles G. Edling on a visit to his birthplace in Sweden. Later in life she visited Europe, Alaska, Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand. Trips to the Caribbean with friends became an annual winter tradition. In the early 1970s she and her family explored the National Parks in the American West and Canada.

Jean was devoted to all things outdoors—long walks with her dog “Tillie” and other neighborhood dogs, leading a Girl Scout troop, and for many decades, golfing in the IBM Country Club and McCann Golf Club women’s leagues. Swimming was a particular passion. Summer meant daily laps in her pool and swimming in the ocean during vacations at Long Beach Island on the Jersey Shore with her children and grandchildren. She often announced, “We have salt water in our veins.”

For more than forty years, Jean volunteered as a driver for Meals on Wheels. She was devoted to her friends, especially the Walnut Hill bridge club, her aunts, uncles, and cousins. Marthe Norbury, her one “girl” cousin, was a close companion throughout their lives. Although not especially fond of housework, she was renowned for her fruit pies. A talented knitter and quilter, she patronized the local library for novels and mysteries. She enjoyed songs from Broadway shows and listening to New York radio stations WHN and WNEW during car rides.

Jean did not like being an only child and made sure future generations would have plenty of company. She was predeceased by her husband Richard O. Cobb in 2002. She is survived by Kenneth R.,( Stephen Mershon) New York, N.Y., Christopher J., DDS (Beth), Virginia Beach, VA, Mary Anne Rodriguez (Salvador), Long Branch, N.J., Virginia M. Sonnergren (Jeffrey), Carmel, N.Y., and James E., Pleasant Valley, as well as 14 grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.