Betty “Jean” Kauffman, age 95, gently passed from this life to her eternal home on August 1st, 2021. She was born to Dewey and Edna Winders on May 7, 1926 and joined big sister Bonnie May in Sioux City, Iowa.
Jean’s parents raised their children during the Great Depression on Olive Street where Dewey worked as a printer, and Edna was a seamstress and homemaker. As a senior in high school Jean fell in love with the local Walgreen’s pharmacist, Eugene Kauffman and married him after high school graduation on April 1, 1945. They enjoyed marriage together for 67 years until his death in 2012. Mom met her best friend Betty Ann Shreve when they were in first grade together in Sioux City. After World War II Betty Ann married Jean’s former neighbor Gordon Williams and the four of them remained friends for life, even traveling together across the US on several adventures.
Jean and Eugene gradually made their way from the Midwest to Eugene with their firstborn, Diana Lynn. Several years later Joan Marie was added to the family and they made their home in the Parkrose neighborhood of Portland and later to Gresham.
One of the most meaningful services Jean undertook was to become a foster parent. Jean and Eugene cared for 6 babies and children over the course of their marriage. One of them, sister Jan Rice, became permanently engrafted with the family. Jean was also a reading tutor for adults through the Portland Adult Literacy Project.
In the 1970s Jean went back to school to become a professional electrolysis operator and owned a successful business in downtown Portland for nearly 20 years. Upon her retirement Jean and Eugene enjoyed travel, took several exotic cruises and and also occasional trips to Reno. Jean actually won an Eldorado Cadillac at the Eldorado Casino in Reno which she drove proudly for years. Later in her retirement Jean became a hospice volunteer with Mt. Hood Hospice and befriended several people through that organization. She was a true help to many. One friend submitted a letter to Reminisce Magazine in such glowing terms that she earned a free trip to Hawaii courtesy of the 1994 Reminisce Service Club. Jean was a long time member of the Gresham Free Methodist Church, now known as Sanctuary Church.
Jean was preceded in death by her husband Eugene Austin Kauffman, sister Bonnie Delawder and husband Joseph of Vancouver, WA and nephew Dewey Delawder of Vancouver. Daughter Diana Lynn Hatfield of Redwood City, CA predeceased her in 2004.
Family includes Gary Hatfield and wife Carolyn Daniels of Reno NV, granddaughter Cynthia Hatfield and husband Sab Kanaujia of New York, NY, great-grandchildren Dia Eve, Maya Joy and Sonam; grandson Clayton Hatfield and Adriana Littrel of Austin, Texas with great-grandchild Diana Lynn; Joan (Kauffman) Harrington and husband Patrick of Gresham, OR and grandchildren Melissa (Harrington) Youd and husband Brian of Canby, OR with great-grandchildren James and Emma Lee; grandson Sean Harrington and wife Jeseka of Cascade Locks, OR and great-grandchildren Kathleen, Liberty, Gabriel, Jack, Timothy, Paul, and Annabelle; grandson Michael of Milwaukie, OR; Jan Rice and husband Mark of Kalispell, MT and grandchildren Rosalie Rice of Kalispell, MT and David Rice of Bozeman, MT. Her nieces Renee Delawder-Hauenstein and Teresa Christ also live in Vancouver.
Jean desired any contributions received after her passing to go to Mt. Hood Hospice at 39065 Pioneer Blvd., Sandy, OR 97055.
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