Obituary of Colleen Dee Jackson

Colleen Dee (Moore) Jackson, age 79, passed away at Brookdale Assisted Living facility in Ontario, Oregon, on Wednesday, December 18, 2019.

Colleen was born on July 14, 1940 in John Day, Oregon, to Theodore and Delphine Moore. During high school, she was a majorette for Grant Union High School. When she was a junior in high school, she moved to Ontario, graduated from high school in 1958 and went to work for Malheur Bell as a telephone operator. She met and married Gary Jackson in August 1969.

Colleen was actively involved in family history and worked at the Family History Center in Ontario and Weiser, Idaho, helping several families discover ancestors and add to their genealogy lines. She also loved scrapbooking and taught classes in Oregon and California. The family moved to California in 1966 where Colleen accepted a position with AT&T as a switchboard operator and retired from AT&T as an engineer. In the 1980’s, while in California, she opened a craft studio and loved sewing and making crafts. She and Gary opened a paint gallery where Gary’s paintings were displayed. She was an avid bowler.

She is survived by a son, Jeff (Lisa) Jackson; six grandchildren, Ben, Nick, McKaylee, Hayes, Sawyer, and Pierce; two great-grandchildren, Cash and Reagan; three sisters, Linda (Mike) Levitt and Janet Maus, both of Ontario, and Dolores (Dodie) Bennett of Payette, Idaho; and one brother, Howard “Harold” (Connie) Moore, Stanfield, Oregon.

Colleen was preceded in death by her husband, mother, father and a step-father, Randall Paul (Mac) MacPhearson, and her grandparents.

A memorial service will be held at the Ontario Ward Building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 661 SW 12th Street, Ontario, Oregon, on January 3, 2020, at 11:00 A.M. 

The family would like to express appreciation to the staff at Brookdale Assisted Living and Dr. Mark Christensen.

Arrangements by Lienkaemper Chapel, Ontario.