Jeanette Louise Quinn

On the morning of February 21, 2016, at 6:30 a.m., Jeanette passed away in Valencia, California, after an eight year struggle with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s disease. Jeanette was 59 years old.

Jeanette Quinn was born in Glendale, California, on August 18, 1956. She was the first child of Virginia and Ron Oneal.

Jeanette always had so many friends growing up in La Crescenta, California. Everyone she met instantly liked her. They could see that she really cared about others. And they could see that it was a true caring from deep in her heart. And she loved to laugh! A happy laugh that was contagious and made everyone around her feel good. She had that effect on people.

She married in her teenage years, and in 1975 moved to Miami, Florida. In 1976, at the age of twenty, she gave birth to her one and only son, Benjamin Ellis. The Ellis family then moved from Florida back to Tehachapi, California. In addition to raising her son, she drove a bus for the State of California, mainly transporting special education students, while at the same time working on her bachelor’s degree at California State University at Bakersfield.

Jeanette loved poetry and art. She wrote many wonderful poems. One of her favorite poets was Edna St. Vincent Millay. “I Dreamed I Moved Among The Elysian Fields” was her favorite poem. She would include phrases, thoughts, and mental images of the Elysian Fields in many of her own poems.

And then there were the elephants. She loved elephants! She had paintings of elephants, pastries made in the shape of elephants, jeweled rings made of elephants, necklaces with interlocking elephants, elephant bracelets, statues of elephants, bookend elephants, coffee table books filled with elephants… But, though she would have if she could, she never found a place where they would let her have her own elephant. So, she went to the Santa Barbara Zoo a lot, where there were always beautiful– elephants!

Jeanette always wanted to be a special education teacher. So, after remarrying in 1997 to Steve Quinn, and becoming Mrs. Jeanette Quinn, she attained her master’s degree and got her teaching credentials from California State University Channel Islands at Camarillo, California. Once she got her credentials, she began teaching special education students in Ojai, California, but then, as life goes, at the ages of 45 and 46, she became pregnant, and gave birth to her two beautiful daughters, Maya, in 2002, and Liamissa in 2004. She was a wonderful mother to them.

However, in 2008 she was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. As you may know, Early-Onset Alzheimer’s moves through its stages much faster than classical later in life Alzheimer’s. And so it was with Jeanette, and because of that, at the age of 59, she passed into the next plane of existence, too early for all of us who knew her so well, and who will miss her so much.

Jeanette was preceded in death by, her mother, Virginia Oneal, her father Ronald Oneal, her mother-in-law Elizabeth Quinn, her father-in-law William Quinn, and her brother-in-law Thomas Quinn.

Jeanette is survived by: her two grandchildren Emma and Noah, her two daughters, Liamissa and Maya, her son Benjamin, her sister Robin, her brother Larry, and her husband, Steve.

She will be laid to rest at the Eternal Valley Mortuary Cemetery in Santa Clarita, California.