Jerralyn June Bishop

She didn’t even know her name was not Baby until she was about 10 years old.

Growing up, she loved hanging out with her friends, Dianne and Annie. They would go to the park, beaches, and hang out as teenagers. She liked riding her bike and hanging out with her siblings as well.

She went to Ballard High School.

When she was 15 years old she met “the girls” father. And she spent a lot of time with him. Eventually, when she was 17 they went off to Idaho to get married.

Upon divorce she began working for Champion Building Products, Sweden Freezer and finally Kimberly Clark (then Scotts Paper Company). After working at Scotts for about 11 years she finally retired from there.

She was a single mom raising two girls on her own. The Three Musketeers lived in Lynwood for many years.

In 1987 Jerralyn moved to Everett and she finally moved to Marysville in 1996, where she lived ever since.

In the words of her daughter, Shannon:

“She was the strongest woman I’ve ever known. She taught both of us how to be strong like her. This strength that she imparted to us was the best gift I could have ever received.”

As a single mom she also displayed such independence. But she always put “her girls” first. There were struggles that she encountered, including the shuttering of three of the companies she worked for. But the girls were raised essentially middle class. They didn’t have want.

On Christmases she made sure the girls felt “wealthy”. She would take a second job if she needed to and really celebrated the landmarks of their lives. If it was Prom she made sure that they had limos and pretty dresses.

She really gave her all to her daughters.

She would take her daughters to drive-in movies, and, because sometimes there was scarcity, she would pop the popcorn at home to save money and take it with them to watch the movie. She took them Trick-or-Treating. She basically never missed anything.

In her daughter’s words: “She was the best mom that anyone could ever ask for. She just gave and gave.”

Jerralyn had the biggest heart. Not just to her daughters. Shelly said, “Our mom was caring, kind and had a good heart toward all people.” She was almost generous to a fault. She would give anyone the shirt off her back.

She also helped raise her grandchildren. She babysat them. She would take them to school, while her daughters were working. She took them to Disney on Ice type of events and played a huge part in raising them. Her grandchildren all think of her as a second mom.

She was just very involved with them.

One of the things that Jerralyn was so proud of was her home. It was a huge accomplishment to buy a house. And she was proud of each of her homes. Her last home was a show-piece. She had hanging baskets everywhere. Her whole backyard was like a park. It was ready for a wedding, without bringing anything in.

She really liked designing the yard, and when her girls bought their own homes, she helped layout their flowerbeds. She advised on where to put their couches. According to Shelly, she should have been a real estate agent or an interior designer. She just really had a knack and an eye for house design.

Even in recent years, Jerralyn looked and acted like she was not 74 but 54. She did everything herself.

She did all her own work on her house. And her ambition for her house was vast. You could eat off her floors.

She got up everyday and was incredibly energetic in all that she did around the house. She was constantly coming over to her daughter’s homes to help out.

She would come over and just start digging weeds.

She would be heartbroken if she couldn’t help Shelly, for example, with cleaning out her garage this year.

One of her hobbies, in fact, one of the hobbies for the Three Musketeers, was to go on drives and visit open houses. She just liked to get new ideas for updating her home. Even two weeks before she passed she was looking at houses. It made her happy.

Jerralyn and her girls were like 3 clones of each other. They had very similar tastes. They lived just three miles apart, with Shelly in the middle. And all 3 houses are painted the same color.

Shelly’s house had the exact same floorplan as her mother’s.

Her daughters consulted their mother on many of the big decisions they had to make. If a new roof was to be put on, they brought in their mom and usually her choice was the one they went with.

They just really were involved in each other’s lives. And, of course, like their mother, Shelly and Shannon are self-sufficient and are very responsible. They were taught by her independence, but they would still turn to her and asked, “mom, what should I do?”

Speaking of responsibility, Jerralyn had a credit score that would make anyone really proud.

When they all got older they began to do a lot of traveling. They went to NY, Hawaii, CA, Idaho, Arizona. They took her to her very favorite place, which was Maui Hawaii. To a specific condo on the beach. She loved that condo. There she loved to go shopping. She shopped in little boutiques with glassware and things for one’s yard, wherever they went; whether it was Maui or Leavenworth or La Conner.

She loved to travel.

She loved her youngest third daughter too, her little Shitzu, Nickie. Shelly and Shannon swear that their mother loved Nickie “our youngest sister” more than she loved us”. Shelly has Nickie now.

She was like a child when it came to Christmas. She couldn’t wait till Christmas time to open her Christmas presents. One time her best friend Ron bought her Christmas presents. She just couldn’t wait. So she opened up all the presents, saw what the gifts were, and then re-wrapped them and put them back under the tree.

She would then try to guess what her daughters’ bought her in advance and she would just keep offering up guesses until she could catch a glimmer of give-away truth in their faces. She was very hard to surprise.

She had unusual nicknames for everyone.

Shelly was Baby Shells or Shell Fishes.

Shannon was Baby Bean or Beaners.

She herself liked to be called Nanny Pet by her grandchildren.

Her grandchildren were Muffy for her granddaughter and Ry-Ry and Dare-Dare for her grandsons. What was Cory, by the way?

She re-named Shannon’s childhood cat: “Coozy Nothing Furry Tongue Dendo”, who became Coozy for short. This was her cats name when she was a child. She named Shelly’s dog Elvis and cat Tuffy as well.

She was creative. Funny. Always making weird jokes. She fell in love with Elvis Presley when she was 12 years old. And so her daughters took her to Graceland in the 90s for her birthday.

She loved many things: she loved sweet stuff. Ice Cream. She loved Suzi Qs until she got sick of them. She loved two cheeseburgers, EXTRA HOT, from Burger King.

She loved Peanut Butter. And loved Randy Johnson, the pitcher for the Mariners.

She was unique. Shelly said: “You will never find anyone like her. Not one. She was absolutely one of a kind.” We often said that “they broke the mold when they made her”.

Jerralyn herself would have said that she lived a very good life.

And what she will be remembered for is her absolutely stellar character.

Shelly said, “My mother had the highest character of anyone I have ever known. She was trustworthy, honest and the most loyal person I have ever known. And she never did anything wrong in her life.”

She had her family by her side when she passed. She knew that they were there. She squeezed her daughter’s hands. They heard her exclaim to the doctor when she left the room, “Where did my girls go?” That’s what she always used to call them: “my girls.”

She leaves behind her two daughters, Shelly and Shannon.

She also leaves behind her favorite son-in-law Cory Pruitt.

She leaves her love and legacy in her three grandchildren: Ashley Siegel, Ryan Maynard and Derek Pruitt.

And one Great Grandson: Dayton Maynard.

She is also survived by her best friend Ron Hobbs, who her daughters called “dad”, and her grandchildren called, “grandpa”. She and Ron had been friends since the 1970s. Ron would take us to our baseball games; and take the team out to ice cream.

Ron was there for Shelly and Shannon’s weddings, and at the births of their children. He was there for Jerralyn when she fell ill and her daughters were working.

Shannon and Shelly have said, “We don’t know what we would have done without him”.

We will miss this amazing, one-of-a-kind woman, Jerralyn.

But we will treasure the memory of her deeply in our hearts, forever.

Blessings upon all of you.