Jennifer Amanda Wickre
1981- 2023
What do you say about a girl who liked Lincoln, Churchill, Music, the Oregon Ducks and who died of Cancer at age 42!
She was born in Medford Oregon on February 9, 1981, first child to Jim & Janie Wickre.
She was a precocious, strong-willed child who would rather be around adults than other children. She took music and dance classes and played soccer. Her soccer coach played her at goalie in grade school because she was the only girl on the team who wouldn’t cry if the other team scored a goal.
From an early age she loved going to Oregon football games with her dad. She was in fact present when Oregon broke the back of the Washington Huskies in the watershed game when Kenny Wheaton ran “The Pick” against the Washington QB to win the game in 1994. As an adult living in D.C., she and her brother would travel to Oregon games whenever they played east of the Mississippi as well as bowl games. She also tried to make it back to Oregon once a year for a home game. Go Ducks!
She graduated from South Medford High in 1999 where she was active in Speech and Debate and chorus. She developed in high school a strong desire to live and work in Washington D.C. She went on to Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, California where they have a “Semester in DC” program.
Jenn loved music and had a beautiful voice. She sang in the South Medford High Chorus, C.M.C. Chorus, and the Congressional Chorus in Washington D.C.
While in college, she interned for a semester for Congressman Jerry Lewis in his Office in DC. They liked her so much they ask her to continue working for them and she spent her summers in college working for the Congressman. After she graduated from college, she worked for him full time. When he retired from Congress, she went to work as a lobbyist for the University of California San Francisco in Washington DC.
She missed “The Hill” and returned as a staffer for the U.S House Committee on Science Space & Technology working her way up to Deputy Staff Director. She was able to work with both Democrats and Republicans to draft and pass legislation in a bipartisan manner. She was known for her big laugh, sense of humor and institutional knowledge of how to get things done.
She loved to travel and go on cruises. She traveled to England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Italy, Kenya, Japan, Chile, the Caribbean, Galápagos Islands, and even made it to Barrow Alaska and Greenland. She loved the island of Kauai in Hawaii. Bandon on the Oregon coast and Disney World!
In 2020, when her parents’ home and its contents burned to the ground along with 100s of other homes in a wildfire near Medford Oregon, she flew home within 48 hours and spent several weeks helping them put their lives back together and then drove them across country to her brother’s home in Kentucky.
When the Congressmen on her committee found out she was dying of cancer, both Republicans and Democrats took to the House Floor for a 30-minute tribute to Jenn.
Jenn fought her cancer for 14 months! She had surgery and went through 3 different chemo regimens each of which consisted of multiple chemo sessions. There were ups and downs and false hope and, in the end, with her known frankness, told her friends and family she was at the end. She, in her short life, accomplished more than most people do in an entire life. In the weeks before her death, hundreds of her friends reached out to her to reminisce and tell her how important she was to them. She even got a visit from her three month old nephew, Benjamin, whom she had never met.
She died at her home in Washington DC with her parents and her dog Finn at her bedside on Saturday April 22. She is survived by her parents, her brother John Wickre and his wife Natalie, and nephew Benjamin of Frankfort, Kentucky, her aunt Marva Wickre of Portland Oregon, her uncle Karl Cox (Carol) of Laurel, Maryland and her aunt Charlotte Cox (Ed) of Tenino, Washington. All of her grandparents predeceased her. Whenever you see the Ducks on TV, or a sunset on the beach, think of Jennifer!
It was Jennifer’s wish in lieu of flowers that contributions be made to Claremont McKenna College as follows:
https://www.cmc.edu/giving In the designation section either mention the Wickre Washington DC Student Experience Fund or simply denote that the gift is in Jennifer Wickre’s honor/memory.
She wanted any student interested in policy and government to be able to have some of the Washington DC experiences she had.
