Nelle Marie Christensen

Nelle Christensen was born October 27, 1931 in Clinton, Oklahoma. Died April 15, 2018 in Medford,Oregon. She was the daughter of Hercel C. Jones and Florence L. Jones (Hill).She grew up during the Great Depression. Fleeing the dust-bowl in 1939 her mother Florence, and hersecond husband Daily, loaded the pick-up truck and trailer with five children and headed west. Theylanded in Talent, Oregon at a peach orchard on Beeson Lane.On November 9, 1947 she married Carl Fredrick Christensen Jr.in Carson City, Nevada. This unionproduced five children. They later divorced in 1961, leaving her to raise five children as a single parent.In her early life, Nelle worked picking corn and tomatoes in the fields. She later worked at some ofMedford’s landmark restaurants including Hunt’s Ice Cream, Hal’s Hideaway, and Kim’s.Wanting a better way of life for her family in 1962 she enrolled at Southern Oregon College (SOC),graduating in 1968 with a BA in English. While putting herself through school and raising children, shewas also involved in the following volunteer work; being a founding member of Head Start, Board ofDirectors for Jackson Co. office of Economic Opportunity, and as a children’s speech therapist.After graduating SOC in 1968 she was hired by the Sacramento County Welfare as a social worker until1975. She later received a Master’s Degree of Social Work from Sacramento State College.In later years she helped start the California Homemakers Association (CHA) and the National LaborFederation on both the east and west coasts. To this day, these organizations still provide a centralizedvoice for workers to help them obtain better wages and working conditions.In 1982 Nelle moved to Seattle, teaching adult education for the University of Washington. She alsowent on to develop and administer training for the YMCA disabled adults. This program helped placedisadvantaged adults in independent living. As well, she was a founding member of the GoodwillLiteracy Program. In 1993 she graduated with a Doctor of Divinity from the Academy of Universal Truth.She is preceded in death by her father Hercel C, Jones, mother Florence L. Smith (Hill), Brother Earl JonesBrother Neil Jones, Sister Ethel Ray Buckles, Son Arlon J. Christensen, Grandsons Drake J. Marshall andJoel D. Romig. She is survived by her brother Jack Jones of Lompoc Ca. her children Kathleen F. Romig(Robert), Diane Reichert, Laura Christensen, all of Medford, Or. and John Christensen (Gwen) of RogueRiver Or. She has seven grand-children, thirteen great grand-children, and four great, great grandchildren.The family would like to thank the workers at Asante Hospice and Home Instead Senior Carefor their excellent care for mom in the last few weeks.
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