Jaculine Louise Lavey

Jaculine “Jackie” Louise Austin Lavey was a beautiful, feisty, intelligent, thrifty and loving woman who died peacefully April 5, 2017 in the Raleigh Hills home she loved for 56 years. She was 87 years old and surrounded by her family in the final days of her life. Jackie was the devoted wife of Bob for 61 years and the relentlessly supportive mother of Jeff, Greg and Dan for a lifetime. If you were to ask Jackie her cause of death, she would certainly reply in her direct, no-nonsense way, “old age…what the hell else would it be? I’m 87”. Born Nov. 13, 1929 in a oneroom house in Blackfoot, Idaho with no indoor plumbing, Jackie was delivered with assistance from her grandmother, Melinda Jane Lee Thompson. Jackie was the first child of the former Thelma Loraine Thompson and Jack Wright. Jackie’s parents divorced when she was very young setting in motion a nomadic, adventurous and sometimes traumatic childhood. After early childhood in Blackfoot, she was put on the train, alone, to Ogden, Utah to attend 4th grade at Sacred Heart Academy. Throughout her life, she frequently spoke of Sister Bertha at the Academy who took special interest in a lonely little girl sent to boarding school at age nine. Jackie then moved to Grants Pass to live with family where she attended elementary school. Grants Pass was followed briefly by Vancouver, Wash. before the family settled in the Westmoreland neighborhood in Portland. As a young girl, Jackie was adopted by her stepfather, Larry Austin and assumed his last name, along with her younger sister, Linda. Her little brother, Bobby was raised and later adopted by her aunt Neva. Another younger sister, Mysta, was born to Thelma and Larry Austin when Jackie was 11 years old. Throughout her teenage years, Jackie helped look after her younger siblings, instilling the nurturing skills, resourcefulness and matter-of-fact personality that defined the rest of her life. Jackie’s adult life was shaped largely by the people she grew up with in her southeast Portland neighborhood and attending Llewellyn Grade School, Washington High School and the University of Oregon. She met her future husband, Bob Lavey, her freshman year at Washington High; lifetime girlfriends, Joanie, Mary, and Josephine; and many others, were all products of these neighborhood and school years in the 1940’s. At the U of O, Jackie joined Kappa Alpha Theta, lived in the “Pink Palace” on 14th and Alder and was Bob’s number one fan on the Fighting Ducks basketball team. Bob and Jackie were married Aug. 25, 1950 at Grace Memorial Church in Portland. They honeymooned in San Francisco. While Bob completed Air Force service in the early 1950’s and went on to build a successful 40 year career in the wood products industry, Jackie gave birth to Jeff in 1955, Greg in 1959 and Dan in 1965. Bob and Jackie put down roots in the Raleigh Hills neighborhood in the early 1960’s where all three of her boys attended Raleigh Hills Elementary, Whitford Junior High and Beaverton High School. Jackie was ever-present and always active in neighborhood and school projects and activities, serving as room mom, scout mom, team mom and heading up committees on everything from field day to carnival night. One of her proudest accomplishments was leading the complete redesign and remodeling of the playground and baseball fields at Raleigh Hills Elementary School in the 1970s, much of her handiwork remains evident today. As a mom, Jackie never missed a ball game or recital and made sure that the Lavey home on Jamieson Road was always the welcoming hub of social activities for her boys and their friends. In the early 1980’s, with her kids grown, Jackie re-entered the 9 to 5 workforce, serving as the long-time assistant to Portland PR professional Karen Whitman. Bob and Jackie both retired in the mid 1990’s and began 20 years of world-wide travel and caring for and enjoying six grandchildren, now ages 30 to 11. Like her role as a mom, Jackie took her job as grandma just as serious: coloring Easter eggs, hosting regular family birthday parties, playing board games, attending school and athletic events, and sharing advice and handwritten notes with her grandchildren. Jackie had a beautiful singing voice, played the piano and was a great dancer. Jackie and Bob were longtime members of the Quarterly Club dance group. Throughout the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s it wasn’t uncommon, usually after a few cocktails, for the phonograph to kick on and dancing to break out among Jackie and Bob’s many friends, old and new, who would stop by for dinner or to celebrate a special occasion. Along with her other “Real Housewives of Raleigh Hills” of the day, Jackie took painting classes, hosted regular Bridge games (some cards between gossip and cigarettes) and neighborhood coffees and helped organize gourmet dinner cooking groups. Never shy with her opinions, Jackie, along with Bob, were politically active and regularly attended the annual GOP Dorchester Conference. In her later years, Jackie and Bob traveled the world; cruising extensively and enjoying Jazz Festivals across the west coast. Looking back, Jackie reflected that she especially enjoyed her voyage through the Panama Canal, her annual birthday trips to Vegas with girlfriends, Josephine and Joanie and her days and nights of fun in Gearhart with friend Mary. Jackie lived a wonderful life. She treated everyone the same. She tolerated and learned to celebrate her husband’s athletic interests, even his bowling league. She was a skilled homemaker and an engaged citizen and volunteer. She was a “tiger mom” before the term was invented. She was a loyal friend and second mom to many. She was the mom your friends would sit and visit with at your kitchen table, sometimes to your great consternation. In her eyes, her boys could do no wrong, even when we did. I guess that’s called unconditional love. She gave it every day of her well-lived life. Jackie was preceded in death by her husband, Bob; and her younger brother, Bobby Wedlock. She is survived by sisters, Linda McClain (John) and Mysta Ward (Stew); sons, Jeff, Greg (Betsy), and Dan (Lori); grandchildren Mark, Jack, Caitlin, Robert, Max and Piper. The family is holding a private burial service where she will be laid to rest with Bob in Willamette National Cemetery. A casual cocktail party will be held from 3-6 p.m., Friday, May 12, 2017 at the Portland Golf Club to celebrate Jackie’s life. Friends of Jackie and Bob and the Lavey boys are welcome. In the meantime, share a memory and say a toast to Jackie. That’s just how she’d like it.