Jessie Louise Duerr

Jessie was a life-long resident of Olympia, specifically of the Steamboat Island area. She grew up a mile from where she was born, attending the original Griffin School, living on the lush, forty-acre homestead of her parents’, Arthur and Ellen Wing.

She and her first husband, Richard Durward, had two children, Lynda and Rich, and later came son Rick Snyder. They raised them in the home they built in the 1950’s – the same home in which she passed.

Jessie held many jobs around Olympia during her life. She worked for the State of Washington, then as a postal worker, a bookkeeper, and an accountant.

After retiring, Jessie and her devoted husband and partner of nearly 43 years, Daryl Duerr, toured the country in various motor homes and travel trailers, visiting family and researching her genealogy. As a descendant of Miles Standish of the original Mayflower, this took her to places all over New England.

Family was everything to Jessie. She never missed an important event, be it a school play, a rodeo, a piano recital, a birth, or a wedding. She and Daryl took their grandkids camping many summers at Lena Creek on the Olympic Peninsula, always with a bowl of her famous potato salad or a berry pie packed along.

It’s no surprise that her secret to a long life was to “stay busy.”

She was the luckiest woman to sit at a penny slot machine.

Jessie also loved her pets. If anything happened to one, she quickly got two more. Her final days were spent with a cat at her feet, a dog at the window, birds in the bird feeders, and a horse and goat standing in her front pasture where she could watch them from her bed.

Though Jessie suffered from Multiple Sclerosis, she never gave up. She was a fighter to the last. She was a true inspiration to all who knew her.

Jessie was preceded in death by her parents and sister Agnes (Wing). She is survived by her husband Daryl Duerr; her children Rich Durward (wife Gay) of Olympia, Lynda Mehrer (husband Vern) of Kennewick, and Rick Snyder of Olympia; her grandchildren Frank Ehresmann of Olympia, Kelli Samson (husband Matt) of Olympia, Jim Mehrer (wife Jamie) of Pasco, Evie Ward (husband Mike) of Honolulu, and Garrett Durward (wife Mel) of Olympia; her cousins Fred Berg of Kelso, Jane McCormick of Sequim, and Jewel “Lucille” Rathjens of Kennewick; and six great-grandchildren: Lexi, Hali, Annabelle, Clementine, Liam, and Ashtyn, with one on the way.

Jessie’s funeral will be held at 1:00 p.m. on March 18 at Mills & Mills Funeral Home. A memorial will follow at 3:00 p.m. inside the Prosperity Grange Hall on Steamboat Island Road. In lieu of flowers, a donation can be made to the MS Society in her name.