Jennetta L. Albee, 98, of Athena, former longtime Condon resident, passed away Friday, August 3, 2012, at the home of her daughter in Athena. A funeral mass will be held Monday, August 13 at 4 p.m. at the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Athena with recitation of the rosary at 3:30 p.m. A reception at the church parish hall will follow the mass. A graveside service will be held Tuesday, August 14 at 11 a.m. at St Joseph Cemetery in Condon, with a reception to follow at the St John Catholic Church parish hall.

On November 5, 1913, in Kinder, Louisiana, Leo and Nolie Pourciau Papin became happy first-time parents of a beautiful baby girl they named Jennetta Louise. Two or three years later, Jennetta became a big sister to a baby brother named Louis.

As preschoolers, Jennetta and her brother lost their mother, and their father struggled to make ends meet, so when his younger sister, Blanche, married Jasper Cole, Leo gave permission for them to raise Jennetta and Louis as their own. When Jennetta was about eight years old, the little family moved west to Klamath Falls, Oregon, where the two children grew up, staying in touch with their father who eventually retired to the same area. The sister and brother helped in the family-run grocery store and were extremely close until Louis early death at nineteen. One of their favorite things to do was to dance and attend school and community dances as a family.

Following high school graduation, Jennetta worked for a time as a dental assistant, later as a teller in one of the local banks. She also continued helping her Aunt Blanche in the house while Blanche worked outside the home. When some of the extra bedrooms in their home were rented out, a newly schooled mortician named Marvin Albee appeared at the Coles door. Answering the door that day, Jennetta was self-conscious about looking a mess because she had been house cleaning, but Marvin thought she was beautiful and they married a year later on March 31, 1937, raising two daughters.

In 1949, Jennetta and Marvin moved to Condon, Oregon, so that Marvin could go into his own mortuary business. Jennetta was the bookkeeper for their business and was an active member of St. John Catholic Church until she moved in with her daughter in Athena, Oregon, where she was adopted into the Sacred Heart Catholic Church community. She recently received papal recognition for her years of teaching religious education and involvement in Altar Society activities.

Before Marvin died in February of 1997, Jennetta devoted many years caring for several family members until their deaths. She enjoyed her hobbies of gardening, sewing, and entertaining her children, grand- and great-grandchildren when theyd come to visit. She is preceded in death by her husband, Marvin; brother Louis, her aunt and uncle and parents. She is survived and greatly missed by daughters and sons-in-law Coletta and Robert Vignal of Tacoma, Washington, and Michelle and Don Kirby of Athena, Oregon, nine grandchildren, twelve great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren.

Jennetta would have loved for memorial contributions to go to the scholarship fund of either church or the Humane Society of the United States or your local animal shelter.

Sweeney Mortuary of Condon is in charge of arrangements.