J: Jenner to Jones

Jenner, Harry
Harry Jenner, tall and red-haired, is a young lawyer running for mayor of Sleepyside against a firmly entrenched incumbent. Cherry meets him when he comes to the doctor's office for treatment of a minor injury caused by his foe's reckless driving, and helps him prove that the mayor is corrupt (Country Doctor's Nurse).

Jepson, Dorothy (Dot)
Hospitalized for rheumatic fever and found to be slightly hearing-impaired, seven-year-old Dot Jepson lost her mother four years ago, and now her father, convicted and jailed for a pawnshop robbery, has escaped from prison. Cherry endears herself to the little girl by calling her Mouse, which happens to be her father's pet name for her, and labors to clear her father's name (At Spencer).

Jepson, Jep
Convicted and jailed for robbing a pawnshop, Jep Jepson has escaped from prison, and no one knows where he is. When his fanciful and imaginative young daughter, Dot, hospitalized at Spencer, claims that he secretly visits and brings her presents, everyone but Cherry believes her story is merely wishful thinking. Cherry determines to find him--but first she has to find the real thief (At Spencer).

Jessup, Dr. Frank
When young Dr. Frank Jessup meets Bertha Larsen and tells her about Heartbreak Hollow, an isolated Kentucky community that needs a nurse, Bertha promptly volunteers; Cherry later temporarily joins her in Kentucky. Dr. Jessup has a practice in nearby Titusville and flies to Heartbreak Hollow by helicopter for weekly visits. Cherry comments that "Dr. Jessup is so reassuring and so good-looking. ... He's as tall and blond as my twin Charlie, and has a wonderful smile that lights up his whole face. I think it's his smile, almost as much as his professional skill, which makes the people here admire and trust him" (Mountaineer Nurse, p. 18).

Jonas, Mama
Roly-poly and commanding, Mrs. Jonas runs the neighborhood deli and grocery with her husband, and helps keep his mind on business. When he says to her, "Ah, Mama. We do not live by bread alone," she answers, "You won't even live by pastrami alone if you don't stop talking" (Visiting Nurse, p. 102).

Jonas, Papa
At the deli and grocery where Cherry eats lunch while making calls in her district, Mr. Jonas tells her what he knows about Mary Gregory--between discourses on literature, Jewish history, Spinoza, and Hebrew grammar, all of which he finds more interesting than business (Visiting Nurse).

Jones, Gwen
Gwen (short for Gwenthyan) Jones, another Spencer classmate, is from a Pennsylvania coal-mining town where her father is a doctor. She is a redhead with "a snub-nosed face sprinkled with freckles" and "gleeful blue eyes" (Student Nurse, p. 29). However, in Dude Ranch Nurse, her "green eyes sparkled" (p. 208). She grumbles frequently--but always good-naturedly. She finds the apartment that six members of the Spencer Club share when they move to New York City (Visiting Nurse). She and Cherry move in with Gwen's Aunt Kathy Martin on Long Island when Cherry is working in a New York City store (Department Store Nurse), and her Aunt Bess offers the Spencer Club a summer house on Long Island, where Gwen has two cousins, eighteen-year-old Spud and his sister Tottie, both rotund (The Mystery in the Doctor's Office). Gwen has another aunt in St. Louis, where she helps Cherry nurse a private patient in an emergency (Private Duty Nurse).

She and Josie Franklin work with Cherry in several of the books (At Spencer, Dude Ranch Nurse, Rest Home Nurse), and she and Josie both take postgraduate courses (Mountaineer Nurse). Gwen does lab work for Dr. Hall on Long Island (Department Store Nurse); then later works private duty cases for Dr. Merriam in New York City (Companion Nurse, The Mystery in the Doctor's Office), and is responsible for Cherry's job as a traveling companion to Martha Logan (Companion Nurse).

Cherry and Gwen plan to travel to the Berkshires for a vacation, but a flood interrupts their journey ("Flood Train"). When Gwen breaks her ankle, she blithely names her crutches Ike and Mike (coincidentally, the same names Cherry's patient Jim Travers gave his crutches in Veterans' Nurse), and enlists Cherry to pinch hit for her as a Visiting Nurse ("Christmas in New York"). Cherry and Gwen spend a month at the Oteen Clinic in Asheville, taking a course on respiratory diseases, and are victimized by an early March snowstorm as they drive through North Carolina's Great Smoky Mountains "Snowbound").

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