Jean Bond Davis, lifelong student and teacher of language and creative arts, performer, writer, lover of foreign places, all things Mexican, disciple of Don Quixote, teacher to hundreds of young people, great mom and curator of generations of family lore, died Tuesday, January 4, 2011, at her home in Denver, Colo. She was 78.

A “full” Texan, Jean was raised in East Texas, but also lived in West Texas where she married Russell Judy Davis, III, January 17, 1953, in Snyder. She was born Flora Jean Bond in the town of New London , in Rusk County, October 20, 1932. Her parents were Luther Herman “Chick” Bond and Ora Myrl Gillis Bond. Jean, her sister, Jonnie and her brother Herman rode green saplings to the ground in thickets of the East Texas piney woods, their playground.

Her accomplishments are many: at 16 she was class president freshman year at Texas Women’s College, Denton, Texas. She earned a BA in Spanish, University of Tulsa; a Masters in Spanish, University of Phoenix , Guadalajara Campus, Mexico; and completed postgraduate studies in Spanish literature at Middlebury College, in Vermont.

Jean was district “Teacher of the Year,” and nominated for Oklahoma State “Teacher of the Year” in 1987. She received numerous awards for her teaching; and published in educational journals. She was a member of the Fundaci?“n de Jos?© Ortega y Gasset; an actor at Tulsa Little Theater and Ponca City Playhouse where she received the award for best supporting actress in Edward Albee’s “The Sandbox.” She worked as a docent for the Roland P. Murdock Collection at Wichita Art Museum .

Affectionately known by students as “Señora,” she taught Spanish and Journalism at Sapulpa High School for 20 years. She coached students to many 1st place ribbons and sweepstakes trophies in state Spanish Language contests.

“I never feel like I’m on vacation unless I’m in country where they don’t speak English,” she told a friend.

Like her mother, Ora Bond, also known as “Vaga” Bond, Jean lived a wandering life of oil company transfers. She followed her husband’s work in engineering to the far flung oil fields of Hobbs, N.M., Shidler, Okla., Hoisington , Kan., Ponca City, Okla., Wichita, Kan., and Tulsa, Okla.

Jean’s loves: her “four boys,” the long-awaited grandsons and one-and-only granddaughter, play-reading, poetry, teaching kids to read; exercising for sheer joy and as a way to combat her illness; playing bridge, learning French, English and non-English speaking countries.

She danced the Texas two-step to the “Lightcrust Doughboys,” was a diehard Cowboys and Longhorns fan and in 1948 took part in the New Year’s Day Cotton Bowl as a nominee for princess.

Jean has three children. All of them learned a language and chose spouses fluent in French, Greek, Spanish, Tunisian and Chinese. All of them moved to the New York City area so their mom could attend Broadway plays. Her family includes Laurel Davis and Luke Bakiras, Denver; Russell Davis and Kristin Bugge, New York City; David B. Davis and Melika Davis, Scotch Plains, N.J.; grandchildren Gabriel Davis, Jack and Lucas Davis, Evan Davis and Julia Davis; sister Jonnie Myrl Bond Smith and family; Linda Bond and family.

Jean lived for her friends and the laughs and joy they shared: beloved neighbors; fellow teachers; manitas y habladoras de Español; bridge club partners; exercise champions and companions; the play-reading troupe; her theater family of actors and directors; the Circle Theater movie buffs; precious old friends, now email chums.

Her handsome husband, Russell Judy Davis, III, and her handsome brother, Herman Bond, predecease her.

There will be a celebration in Jean’s honor Sunday, February 20, 2011, at the Tulsa Historical Society.

Donations may be made to St. Jude Children’s Hospital.