Jenneva Briggs-Bess

TORRINGTON, WYOMING..............Funeral services for JENNEVA Moine BRIGGS-BESS, 93, will be held at 10:30a.m. Thursday, April 17, 2008 at the Colyer Funeral Home Chapel with Reverend Curtis Hill officiating. Burial will follow in the Valley View Cemetery. Jenneva died in Laguna Woods, California April 6, 2008. Memorials may be directed to either the Lake Grove Presbyterian Church or the Lake Oswego Adult Community Center both in Lake Oswego, Oregon. Arrangements are under the direction of the Colyer Funeral Home and friends may send condolences to the family at www.colyerfuneralhome.com. Jenneva was born January 6, 1915 on a farm near LaPlata, Missouri the daughter of Eugene and Laura May Moine. The family moved to a ranch northeast of Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1920. In the fall of 1922 the family moved to a farm west of Torrington. She grew up and received her education at Torrington, where she graduated from high school in 1933. She attended the University of Wyoming and Oregon College of Education in Monmouth, Oregon. She received her masters degree in elementary education from the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. She was a constant learner. Jenneva began her teaching career in a one room school on a ranch in Wyoming. She taught first grade at Upton, Wyoming from 1940 to 1942. In 1942 she married Ralph H. Briggs. She worked in accounting Army finance as they moved about the country from 1942 to 1945. At the close of the war she and her husband moved to Portland, Oregon where she worked for a time for an accounting firm until with the classroom beckoning, she returned to teaching. She taught for forty-two years, thirty-four of which were in Lake Oswego, Oregon, where she lived for 1953 to 2006. Her interest in world understanding gave her an opportunity to teach English to elementary age children for one summer at a private school in Mexico City. At this time she helped organize an exchange program with sixth graders. She worked with the program until she retired. She took her turn in accompanying a group of twenty-eight boys and girls to Mexico City. Jenneva advocated a child centered approach to teaching and throughout her career held high standards of conduct and work. She worked on curriculum development for the schools in Lake Oswego and with the Lake Oswego Education Association. Jenneva had no children of her own, so the children she had the privilege to teach were her joy and love. She loved the outdoors, especially the mountains, ocean, woods , and hiking. She would become spellbound by autumn colors and would travel any distance to see them. Gardening was her pride and joy while traveling and dancing were favorite pastimes. Jenneva was an active member of the Lake Grove Presbyterian Church where she was a Deacon, and the wedding coordinator for thirty years. She was a member of the League of Women Voters, the Delta Kappa Gamma Society International, Forest Hills Garden Club, AAUW, MARFE, and Lake Oswego Adult Community Center. Jenneva lost he first husband Ralph Briggs in 1963 and in 1987 she married a longtime family friend, Floyd A. Bess. Floyd passed away in 2006. She is survived by her sister Juanita Pettit of Laguna Woods, California; step-daughters Cynthia Anne Torche of Elma, Washington, Sherry Bess Arnhart of Seattle, Washington; four granddaughters; and three great granddaughters; and many nieces and nephews.

Jenneva Briggs-Bess

January 6, 1915 - April 6, 2008