Caleb Donathan “Don” Jeys, Sr.

Scott County in Iowa

Davenport in Scott County

Homicide

Don Jeys, Sr.
64 YOA
700 blk West 5th St.
Davenport, IA
Scott County
February 18, 1972

Case summary by Nancy Bowers

Caleb Donathan Jeys, Sr., was known to family and friends as “Don.”  He was a successful salesman of soft-wares, which — in the pre-computer era — were rugs, sheets, bedspreads, curtains and yarn.

For many years, Don sold for and managed the L.B. Price Mercantile Company in Davenport, which specialized in chenille products and for a time was the exclusive distributor of Master Guide Bibles.

Don also owned three apartment houses and resided in one, using his living room as a home office. In 1972, the 64-year-old lived alone after two marriages had not worked out.

Late on Friday, February 18, 1972, other residents of the apartment house heard a gunshot and called police. Authorities found Don Jeys dead, shot in the head once at close range with a .32 or .38 caliber handgun.

Robbery was clearly the motive, as his apartment was ransacked and his papers rifled. Also a large amount of cash for a new commercial van he planned to purchase on Saturday was missing.

Clues were few, although one apartment resident thought he saw a “tall, thin man” fleeing the house after the shot.

The Life of Don Jeys

Caleb Donathan Jeys, Sr. was born September 29, 1907 in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa, to Lena Mae Cumpston and Joseph Elnathan Jeys. He had eleven siblings: three brothers — George Otey Jeys, Joseph LeRoy Jeys, and Byron Dale Jeys — as well as five sisters, Mary R. Jeys Wood, Lena Marguerite Jeys, Alice Harriett Jeys Bock, Jennie Irene Jeys, and Etta Lou Jeys Keele.

In 1925, Don married Vera Lavella Eastwood and they had three children:  Caleb “Donn” Donathan Jeys, Jr., Robert Dale Jeys, and Rose Marie Jeys Mayo.

Don quickly rose to managerial duties in the L.B. Price Mercantile Company before his Navy service in WWII. He and Vera divorced. When he returned after the war in 1946, Don married Romelle Foster Ohl and resumed his job with L.B. Price, selling soft-wares until his death.

Courtesy photo dvrice

Don Jeys is buried with fellow veterans in the Rock Island Cemetery.

Don Jeys’s funeral was held at a Davenport Catholic church, and he was buried at Rock Island National Cemetery.

Information Needed

Questions and information about the 1972 unsolved murder of Don Jeys should be directed to the Davenport Police Department at 563-326-7979 or to Iowa Cold Cases through the Contact form.

Sources

• “Byron Jeys’ brother shot and killed,” Le Mars Daily Sentinel, March 2, 1972.
• Davenport City Directory, 1937.
• “Davenport Man Is Found Dead,” Des Moines Register, February 20, 1972.
• “Found Shot to Death,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, February 29, 1972.

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