Jean Carol Anderson

JEAN CAROL ANDERSON
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**UPDATE** A memorial service for Murray and Jean Anderson will be held at the Senior Center in Oak Harbor, Washington on Saturday, August 11, 2018 between the hours of 2 and 6 p.m.

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Special-needs children and their families lost a champion when Jean Carol (Brattain) Anderson, 87, passed away March 28, 2018, at the Regency on Whidbey memory care facility in Oak Harbor.
Jean, who had heart conditions and dementia, died peacefully with one of her daughters, Crystal Bedford, who was able to fly to Washington earlier in the day, at her side.
In an era when many American girls spent far more time in skirts than slacks, played house with toy kitchen appliances and were groomed for a life as the "weaker sex," Jean was raised to be independent and confident.
She fell in love with the outdoors, became a skilled hunter as a teenager and in later years, along with her husband, was an activist for the developmentally disabled. And the only makeup she wore was lipstick.
Family members say she was the nicest woman they ever knew.
Jean was born in Tonasket, Wash., on Dec. 7, 1930, to William Leslie Brattain and Nellie Olson Brattain. She was the eldest of their three children; her younger brothers were Leslie, born in 1935, and Pat, born in 1945 and who preceded Jean in death.
She was raised on the banks of the Okanogan River the first 10 years of her life and was a so-called "river rat" because she spent so much time swimming and playing in the water.
The family moved to Anchorage, Alaska, and two years later, when Jean was 12, they moved to the small community of Hope, Alaska, on the Kenai Peninsula.
Jean, who loved Alaska, continued to embrace the bounty of the outdoors and spent her spare time hiking and hunting in the mountains. Her father called her a "ridge runner" and told her to always take the .30-30 rifle and fire three shots if she got into trouble. She hunted for meat for the family and tracked, shot, dressed out and transported the meat on her backpack to the two small cabins where the family lived. She hunted moose, deer, goat, sheep -- and even bear. She netted salmon in the mouth of a local creek.
In 1949, she attended Washington State College (now Washington State University) in Pullman, Wash. On a blind date to the senior prom, she met the love of her life, Murray Anderson. They corresponded during the summer and were married on Nov. 28,1950, when he was drafted into the Army.
Murray was stationed In Fairbanks, Alaska. She joined him there, and they lived in a converted garage. When temperatures turned frigid, they had to go out every few hours and run a lighter under the fuel line to keep fuel running to their heating stove. Jean's longtime outdoors experience continued to serve her well.
Murray was a dairy farmer and the couple worked at various farms in Skagit and Whatcom counties after Murray left the Army in 1952. Their first two daughters, Edona and Crystal, were born while they were dairy farming.
In 1960, when the family was living in Sumas, Wash., they drove up the Alaska Highway to visit Jean's parents. Murray flew back to Washington two weeks later. Jean stayed in Alaska another two weeks and drove the Volkswagen camper back down the Alaska Highway with her two young daughters -- an adventure that included a flat tire and a forest fire.
Also that year, their youngest daughter, Carrie, was born and diagnosed with Down's Syndrome. Jean and Murray were told their only option was to put her in an institution. They visited one, were appalled by the conditions and decided to keep her at home.
Murray started performing volunteer work with what was then known as the Washington Association of Retarded Citizens. He was hired as the first executive director of New Leaf, a recently formed sheltered workshop in Mount Vernon. By then, schools were forming special-education classes, but children who needed them did not have the skills to be in a classroom. Jean and Murray were instrumental in founding the Skagit Preschool Association for Retarded Children (SPARC), now known as the Skagit Preschool And Resource Center, in Mount Vernon.
Jean was the treasurer for SPARC's first eight years.
Over the years, Murray became increasingly active at local, state and federal levels in what's known as the normalization movement for special-needs children and adults. The work involved integration of the developmentally disabled into the mainstream in schools, workshops and group homes. He was an executive director for various sheltered workshops in Washington and Alaska. He served as acting director of the Governor's Committee to Hire the Handicapped for the State of Washington.
Jean supported and participated in the advocacy work while raising the family and working as a part- and full-time bookkeeper.
After their children were grown, the couple's favorite pastime was hiking in the woods and mountains of the Pacific Northwest. Family legend has it that they hiked every trail on the Western side of the Cascades, and many on the Olympic Peninsula and in Eastern Washington, Idaho and Alaska. Hikes often included backpacking in and staying overnight in the mountains.
They had a series of Volkswagen campers because they wore them out.
Jean's family is grateful to Regency on Whidbey and Hospice for their caring support in her last days.
Survivors include her beloved husband of 67 years, Murray, who lives at Regency on Whidbey; and daughters Edona Anderson of Palm Desert, Calif., Crystal Bedford of Fort Collins, Colo., and Carrie Anderson of Burlington, Wash.; her brother Leslie Brattain (Fay) of Sun City West, Ariz.; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
No services are scheduled. She was cremated under the direction of Smart Cremation's Puyallup branch, and family members plan to scatter her remains, possibly in multiple locations. In summer, they plan to distribute some of Jean's ashes on her parents' graves in Hope, Alaska.
In lieu of flowers, please donate to SPARC, 320 Pacific Place, Mount Vernon, WA 98273.
The family would like to share some poetry, written by Jean's grandmother. Given Jean's lifelong passion for the outdoors, it was a natural as her favorite poem.

SAGE IN THE RAIN
By Nellie MacNeill Miller Brattain

There's a trail on the side of the mountain,
That I see in my mind's eye so plain.
I can still hear the creak of the saddle
I can still smell the sage in the rain.

We rode down the long trail together,
That I'd like to be riding again;
For I long for the feel of wet leather,
And the smell of the sage in the rain.

Tho time may bring changes unnumbered,
And my wish to be riding be vain,
Unchanged is the trail on the mountain,
And the smell of the sage in the rain.