Bobbi Jean Means

October 25, 1958 – October 13, 2026

Bobbi Jean Catherine Means lived a life that was anything but ordinary. And if you knew Bobbi, you knew that even her name came with a story. Over the years, she was Bobbi Jean Catherine Means, Rice, McHone, Miller, and eventually, back to Means. She took great delight in reciting the whole thing, a fitting introduction to a woman who lived many lives in one.

Bobbi was an original. Fiercely independent, remarkably intelligent, sharp-witted, and wonderfully eccentric, she marched to the beat of her own drum. She was a collector of things, of stories, of people, and of experiences. Depending on the decade, or sometimes just the year, she was on a mission to complete her latest collection. Baseball cards, Gumby figurines, Native American pottery and sand art, Herkimer diamonds, magnetite from Magnet Cove, Arkansas, rocks, minerals, and jewelry of every imaginable kind. Whatever captured her imagination became her next great pursuit.

Nothing made Bobbi happier than discovering something that everyone else had overlooked. Whether digging in the earth for rocks and minerals or searching the shelves of a thrift store, she had an extraordinary ability to recognize beauty and value where others saw nothing remarkable. The thrill wasn’t simply in owning something. It was in finding it, recognizing its worth, and knowing she had discovered something special.

Bobbi was also an entrepreneur at heart, always finding creative ways to turn her interests into opportunities. At one point, she even operated a candy store out of her own home. Her first official business license was for Extra Innings, a baseball card shop she opened in Syracuse, New York. Whether selling sweets or trading collectibles, Bobbi had a knack for recognizing what people valued and an independent streak that made her want to do things her own way.

Bobbi was a maximalist in every sense of the word. More was almost always better, and there was no such thing as having too many of something she loved. It is a trait she proudly, or perhaps unintentionally, passed along to nearly all her children, whose own homes and collections bear more than a passing resemblance to hers.

Her taste in entertainment was equally fitting. She could watch true crime documentaries or episodes of Columbo endlessly, always drawn to a good mystery. And naturally, her favorite movies involved the pursuit of hidden treasures. She adored National Treasure, Indiana Jones, and Pirates of the Caribbean — stories of adventure, mystery, discovery, and the thrill of finding something extraordinary. In many ways, they reflected the curiosity that defined her own life.

Born on October 25, 1958, Bobbi began her journey in Ohio, graduating from high school in Hamilton in 1977, where she was a member of the National Honor Society. Exceptionally bright and endlessly curious, she possessed the kind of intelligence that could have taken her just about anywhere.

And in many ways, it did.

Bobbi spent her life crisscrossing the country, sometimes more than once, making homes in Ohio, Delaware, Virginia, California, Connecticut, New York, Arizona, Washington, Arkansas, and Kentucky. Each chapter brought new surroundings, new people, new stories, and inevitably, new things to collect. Her life was rarely predictable and never short on interesting characters.

While working in furniture design in Southern California in the 1980s, she met legendary Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda. She formed a memorable friendship with Cris Jones, the flamboyant and outspoken brother of Grace Jones. And, in a story only Bobbi could tell, she once won “Tony Curtis for a Day” through a Turner Classic Movies contest.

During her years as a store manager at Value Village in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, she proudly wore her rainbow earrings, embracing the colorful community around her. Her jewelry collection was legendary, with something for every occasion. She had little interest in blending in and even less interest in being told how to live.

Bobbi married twice, but those who knew her best might say she was happiest as a fiercely single woman, free to pursue whatever caught her imagination next.

She became a mother at a young age, as generations of women in her family had before her. Motherhood, like much of her life, was complicated. Bobbi could be fiercely protective, emotionally guarded, sharp, and uncompromising. She was not a conventional mother, nor did she pretend to be. She navigated life with the tools she had and did the best she knew how.

And while life wasn’t always easy, she raised children who became empathetic, hardworking, humble, and resilient adults. Perhaps some of the most important lessons she gave them weren’t necessarily the ones she intended to teach.

Bobbi is survived by her children, Andy Thornberry, Amanda Nix, Christine McHone, Jeanine Gaines, and Shaun Miller; her grandchildren; her sister, Shelley Means; and her brothers, Philip Rice and Glenn Rice.

She was preceded in death by her son, Kevin, and her parents, Paula Stone and Robert Means.

Many years ago, two plaques hung on the wall of Bobbi’s home, bearing words that would stay with her children long after they had grown and started families of their own.

“You only live once, but if you live right, once is enough.”

And:

“Happiness is not having what you want, but wanting what you have.”

Those words became more than decorations on a wall. They became guiding principles, carried into adulthood and passed along to the next generation.

If Bobbi were telling the story of her own life, she would likely tell you that her greatest treasures were her children. And while she wasn’t always a woman who expressed love easily or openly, she raised children who learned to lead with empathy, humility, and compassion. In many ways, they became the very things she sometimes struggled to express.

For a woman who spent a lifetime searching for things others overlooked, perhaps the greatest treasure was right there with her all along.

Her children.

And in them, a little piece of Bobbi lives on.