Doris Margaret ("Do") Jasinek died Saturday, Dec. 19, 2020, in Middlefield Oaks Assisted Living and Memory Care in Cottage Grove, Oregon.
Do had slowed down recently, but for almost all of her 96 years she was active and vibrant. She was proud to say she had moved 40 times, in four different states. Each move brought the opportunity for new friends, and she made many great ones. Friends, family and fun were the joys of her life, along with hard work (and fabulous food). She achieved many remarkable accomplishments.
Do was born in Joliet, Illinois, to Hilda and Marion Brethorst, a teacher and a banker. She was the oldest of three sisters.
During World War II, the sisters sang and played piano for USO shows, and Do's wartime efforts also included manufacturing work in a munitions plant.
After the war, Do married a former Navy aviator, Bill Jasinek, also of Joliet. By the time Bill graduated from the University of Illinois, the couple had two children, Joy and Gary.
In the early 1950s, the family moved back to Joliet, where Bill was hired as parks and recreation director. Do's parents and sisters and their families still lived in the area, so there were many opportunities for family gatherings. In 1957, the Jasineks relocated to Chula Vista, California, when Bill was hired for the same position there.
The family would live in that Southern California locale for nearly the next two decades. Do was active in the local Congregational Church, where she worked part time for the church's preschool. Her church connections also led to a job as director for two summers as director of the junior (K-6) camp at Pilgrim Pines church camp in Yucaipa, California.
But it was her preschool work that would set the course of a career that she would embark on at the age of 50, after Bill died of lung cancer. At the time, Do and Bill were living in Johnson County, Kansas, where Bill had secured another parks and rec director's job.
A widow with no employment and few prospects, Do returned to California and enrolled in educational programs at University of California at San Diego, Pacific Oaks in Pasadena, and, for a summer, the University of London.
With a degree in early childhood education, she found work as family ministries program administrator for Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Encinitas, California, where her teachers formed the core of a group of women Do called her A-listers. Many lively gatherings of that group ensued.
There were always waiting lists for the dozens of parenting classes Do led at the church.
In Encinitas, Do met future prize-winning author Pamela Munoz Ryan, with whom she partnered to write a series of gift books. "How to Build a House of Hearts," "A Family is a Circle of People Who Love You," and "Falling in Fun Again" were published by Compcare and are still available on Amazon.
Later, Do was hired as a consultant to create the first city-funded preschool in Aspen, Colorado, where her daughter, Joy, was a teacher.
Next in her journey, in the 1990s in Gig Harbor and Federal Way, Washington, Do was a pioneer in intergenerational preschools -- set up in assisted-living facilities, where children and elders would intermix to the benefit of all.
Do took up running as a hobby in her 50s, and continued pounding the pavement well into her 70s, when she transitioned into daily walks. She walked up to a mile a day into her 90s.
Even at 92, living in Wenatchee, Washington, she was an active and popular volunteer at the Pybus Market, a community gathering place and farmers market.
Alzheimers and heart issues slowed Do down in recent years, when she lived until October with her son, Gary, and his wife, Carole, in Eugene, Oregon, with daughter Joy and her husband, Tom, nearby.
Other survivors include her sisters, Lee Makeever of San Diego, and Jayne Balma of Tequesta, Florida; grandchildren Bethany Wilkes of Singapore, Andrea Hicks Jasinek of Portland, Oregon, and Adam Jasinek of Bend, Oregon; and two great-grandchildren, Maxine Hicks of Portland and Abigail Jasinek of Bend.
Also remaining are the many good and great friends Do made along the way.
She was loved.
No public services are planned. Do would have appreciated any donation in her name to the Pybus Foundation, c/o Pybus Public Market, 3 N. Worthen St., Wenatchee, WA 98801.
