Jacquelyne Mae Arends

Jacquelyne Mae Arends lived a remarkable life spanning nearly a century, from the prosperity of the late 1920s through the technological transformations of the early 21st century. Born on January 22, 1930, in Independence, Missouri, to Vera Fern Lowery and Edwin Francis Lowery, she would become beloved to multiple generations as "Oma," a testament to the loving legacy she created through deliberate choices that prioritized family and community over personal ambition.

Growing up during the Great Depression and coming of age during World War II, Jacquelyne demonstrated exceptional artistic talent from an early age. Her creative gifts were formally recognized during her high school years when she received a scholarship offer to work for Hallmark Cards, the Kansas City-based greeting card company. This opportunity represented a significant honor for a young woman in the 1940s, as the greeting card industry was beginning to professionalize and expand career opportunities for women artists. However, at this critical juncture, Jacquelyne made a deliberate choice that would shape the rest of her life—she declined the Hallmark scholarship to instead build a life centered on family.

In the late 1940s, Jacquelyne married Billy Joe Arends, beginning a partnership that would endure for an extraordinary seventy-eight years. Billy Joe, born on January 20, 1929, in Independence, Missouri, proved to be an ambitious and enterprising individual who would build a successful business career. Their early married years were spent in Missouri, where they began building what would become a substantial extended family, including children David Jack, Beverly Jill, Vashti Ruth, and Billy Kurt.

In 1957, the Arends family made a pivotal decision to relocate to Washington State, establishing their home in University Place, a community in Pierce County near Tacoma. This cross-country move represented a significant undertaking and suggested that Billy Joe had identified substantial business opportunities in the Pacific Northwest. Once established in Washington, Billy Joe built a thriving insurance business, founding Billy Joe Arends Independent Insurance in 1966, which he operated successfully until his retirement in 1989.

While Billy Joe developed his insurance agency, Jacquelyne established her own professional identity by working as a secretary at the naval shipyard. Her employment at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard placed her within the historical continuum of women who had worked at this significant Pacific Northwest naval facility. The shipyard had employed women for more than a century in various capacities, from the "Rosie the Riveters" of World War II to the administrative and technical positions of the postwar era. Jacquelyne's secretarial work required competence, trustworthiness, and the ability to handle complex administrative responsibilities in a military industrial environment.

Although Jacquelyne never pursued a professional art career through the Hallmark opportunity, her artistic talents and creative inclinations remained central to her identity throughout her life. She found joy in painting, drawing, and music, especially playing the piano. Her garden and kitchen became places of peace and love, where she shared her artistic gifts with others, applying her creative sensibilities to creating beautiful and nurturing domestic spaces.

Upon retirement from the naval shipyard, Jacquelyne embarked on a meaningful chapter of community service through volunteer work in Fircrest elementary schools, where she read with children and touched many young lives. This volunteer work allowed her to continue contributing meaningfully to her community while working with the literacy development of young people—a role that aligned perfectly with her values of service and human connection.

Jacquelyne's most enduring legacy resided in the extensive family she and Billy Joe created together. Her surviving descendants included three adult children, twelve grandchildren, nineteen great-grandchildren, and four great-great-grandchildren, all of whom knew her by the affectionate term "Oma". One of her notable descendants was her son David Jack Arends, who achieved public recognition in December 2020 when he served as a presidential elector for Washington State, courageously casting his electoral vote despite serious health challenges.

A woman of deep faith, Jacquelyne loved God and found comfort in His Word. Her spiritual orientation appears to have been central to how she understood her life and relationships. Her remembered personality was marked by optimistic expressions like "I'm as happy as a clam" and "Bless your buttons," phrases that suggested a warm, approachable, and somewhat whimsical approach to life.

The Arends' marriage endured for seventy-eight years until Billy Joe's death on August 27, 2025, at age 96. Tragically, they had also been preceded in death by their son Billy Kurt Arends, who died on December 26, 2020, at age 71. Jacquelyne's sister, Valentine (Lowery) Hinrichs, who had graduated from East High School in Kansas City, Missouri, and later moved to Washington State, had passed away on April 19, 2011.

Jacquelyne Mae Arends passed away in 2026 at the remarkable age of 96, surrounded by love in her final days. She was laid to rest at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, Washington, with burial services held on April 3, 2026. Her life exemplified the intersection of artistic talent, family devotion, and community service that defined much of twentieth-century American life. While she never realized her early promise as a professional artist, her artistic talents found expression through the creation of beauty in her domestic spaces, her musical abilities, and the careful attention she brought to her relationships with family and community members. Her story represents an important chapter in understanding how talented women of her generation navigated opportunities and constraints, often choosing to channel their abilities into family and community roles that created lasting legacies of love and service.