Jacqueline May Stoopes

 Jacqueline May “Jackie” Stoopes was born on July 31, 1930, to John and Signa Lundberg in Wabasha, Minnesota. Her heritage was Swedish on both sides of her family. She had two older sisters, Marion and Dorothy, and a younger brother, John. The family moved to Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, 125 miles downriver on the Mississippi, on Jackie's 4th birthday in 1934. Her father was a federal game warden and her mother a homemaker. The family moved to a small farm near Cable, Wisconsin, in October 1943. On the 4th of July 1947, Jackie began her loving relationship with her future husband at a baseball game in Cable. William Gerald “Jerry” Stoopes was then a recently honorably discharged US Army paratrooper. He had served in the occupation forces in Japan immediately following WW2 with the 11th Airborne Division. Jerry was well known to Jackie as they were schoolmates at Cable High School where Jerry completed his last two years of high school while living with his Uncle Fred and Aunt Lena Thompson. He was drafted after turning 18 in February 1945 and granted his high school diploma a bit early. After his discharge in December 1946, he attended art school on the G.I. Bill in Minneapolis where his family lived. An avid outdoorsman, Jerry introduced Jackie to the art of fly casting on the shore of Namekogan Lake during a visit in the fall of 1947. Some people believe this nears the heights of romance. Jackie graduated from Cable High School, one of six in her class, in the spring of 1948. She moved to Noti, Oregon, with her parents and brother John, in September. Jerry moved to Noti in October and he and Jackie were married at Grace Lutheran Church in Eugene on July 2, 1949. Their honeymoon was a week of sight seeing and fly fishing on the McKenzie River in the Cascades. They set up a very simply furnished home in a small house in Noti which Jackie characterized as “two rooms and a path.” For two years, Jackie rode a bus to work at a store in Eugene while Jerry rode the “crummy” to work at the Long Bell Lumber Company sawmill in Austa where he held a number of jobs including lumber grader. Their first child, Jeffrey, was born during a snowstorm on March 5, 1951 in Eugene. Two months later the family moved to company employee housing in Austa next to the sawmill at the junction of Wildcat Creek and the Siuslaw River. They acquired a dog, Pete, a horse, Roxie, and another son, Gary, born on August 28, 1953. The state rerouted highway 126 right through the company housing at Austa so the family moved to various rental properties over the next few years adding three more children to the crew: Richard, born May 6, 1955, Virginia, born February 8, 1957 (her father's birthday!), and Thomas, born April 16, 1960. In the fall of 1960, the Stoopes family, now numbering seven (eight if you count the dog, Major, an English Springer Spaniel), moved into company employee housing at Vaughn where Jerry was then employed in the plywood mill of the Long Bell Division of International Paper Company. All the kids attended Applegate Elementary and graduated from Crow High School. After the sawmill and plywood mill at Vaughn closed, Jackie and Jerry moved to a rental property in the Poodle Creek valley west of Noti in 1984. In the fall of 1986 they moved one last time -- to a house they leased and eventually purchased in the Elk River valley a few miles north of Port Orford. They enjoyed 24 years together on their “homestead” until Jerry's death on January 31, 2010. Jerry was a well known local artist during those last 24 years, mainly producing wood sculptures of fish and animals and Northwest Coastal Indian art style pieces. Jackie was the business manager of this enterprise and also worked as an in home care provider and for a few years at Second Street Gallery in Bandon. She drove herself to work after finally acquiring a driver license. They sold Jerry's art pieces and salmon flies out of a micro gallery in their home. Jerry was also well known as “Elk River Jerry” among fly fishers, landing many big Chinook salmon from the Sixes and Elk rivers over the years, some of which were immortalized in beautiful wood carvings. Jackie was an excellent cook and always enjoyed canning fruits and vegetables and tending a big garden wherever the family lived. She became a master at smoking salmon. She loved horses and was an accomplished horsewoman. She was a voracious reader and wrote poetry – some of which was published. She enjoyed doing her own art work with pencils and pastels. She enjoyed board games, especially Scrabble, playing with Jerry in their many evenings together until they both became master players. Cribbage was her favorite card game and she was a formidable opponent – as anyone who played against her can testify. This was when her Swedish Viking blood was most evident. Jackie and Jerry were very active and faithful members of the churches they attended over the years, including Grace Lutheran in Eugene, as charter members of Christ Lutheran in Veneta, and at Zion Lutheran and Port Orford Christian Center in Port Orford. Their strong Christian faith and witness, their devotion and loving service, will long be cherished by those who knew them. Jackie's son Gary purchased her home in 2017 and cared for her until it was necessary she move into Pacific View Assisted Living in Bandon for safety reasons the summer of 2018. All her sons were with her to celebrate her 91st birthday at a family party at Pacific View on July 31, 2021. Jackie passed away peacefully after a brief illness the evening of June 1, 2022 at Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg. Her oldest sons, Jeff and Gary, were with her the last three days of her earthly life. Jackie is survived by her sister Dorothy and brother John, all her children, seven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, and many nephews and nieces and their children. A memorial service for Jackie, with pot luck reception following, will be held at 2 P.M. June 11 at Port Orford Christian Center 936 Washington St., Port Orford. Jerry's and Jackie's ashes will be interred together at Roseburg National Cemetery, with military honors, at a future date. Memorial gifts may be made to Port Orford Christian Center P.O. Box 1288 Port Orford, OR 97456 or World Mission Prayer League 232 Clifton Ave., Minneapolis, MN 55403. Correspondence may be addressed to Rev. Jeff Stoopes 31 River Road, Cascade, Montana 59421 or to Gary Stoopes P.O. Box 1262 Port Orford, OR 97465.

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