Antoinette "Nettie" Marie Jungers

Antoinette “Nettie” Marie Jungers, 85, passed away on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, after a fearless battle with cancer.

Nettie was born on a cold winter’s day in Anchorage, Alaska, on February 19, 1941, to Virgil and Mona Schoentrup. She was their first child and only girl. Eighteen months later, with the world engulfed in World War II and a second child on the way, the family moved south to Alderwood Manor, Washington.

At ten years old, Nettie went to work at her parents’ restaurant, Virgil’s, running the cash register. It was the beginning of a working life that would span decades, many different kinds of careers, and eventually take her from behind her parents’ cash register to elected public office.

After high school, Nettie married Michael “Mike” Jungers, a United States Marine. Together they had two children, Tracy and Jim, and began a life that rarely kept them in one place for too long. Over the course of Nettie’s 85 years, she and her family moved more than a dozen times, making homes in Mountlake Terrace and Burlington, Washington; Dixon, California; Winlock, Washington; and, finally, Bellingham.

Nettie always had a servant’s heart, and in 1968 that calling took an unexpected turn when she applied to become a police officer in Dixon, California. She was hired by the Dixon Police Department and served as the only female officer on the department, remaining there until she and Mike once again returned to Washington in 1973.

The Jungers family called Dixon home for only seven years, but Nettie became deeply embedded in the community and formed friendships that would last the rest of her life. It was also in Dixon that Nettie and Mike opened their home to a 15-year-old girl named Janet. What began as fostering became something permanent: Janet became their daughter that year, 1972, and remained so for the rest of Nettie’s life.

After returning to Washington, Nettie continued her life of public service through a long career in the juvenile courts of Lewis County. A career that eventually led her to the office of Lewis County Superior Court Clerk, an elected position she held before finally retiring. Nettie’s working life brought her into contact with generations of people and communities along the way.

Her involvement in Lewis County extended well beyond the courthouse. Nettie was active in the Legal Secretaries Association from 1978 to 1999 and the Lioness Club from 1984 to 2016, giving more than three decades of her time to the latter. She also served as President of the Board of the Human Response Network of Lewis County. These were not simply names on a membership list, but organizations to which Nettie gave years—and often decades—of her time.

All the while, her family continued to grow. Tracy married her husband, Troy Olney and together they had two sons, Alek and Sam. Jim married Wendy Olson, and they had three children, Rachel, Michael and Rebecca. Janet married Danny Goodwater, and they had two children, Brian and Brooke.

In time, another generation followed. Alek married Jena and they welcomed their son, Jensen. Rachel married Dan and had two children, Gabriel and Evelyn. Michael married MacKenzie. Brian married Rachel and had a daughter, Shyanne, while Brooke had two children, Alex and Taylor. The family that Nettie and Mike began together ultimately grew to include three children, seven grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

In 2016, Nettie said her final farewell to Mike, her husband of 54 years.

Nettie’s was a life that covered a remarkable amount of ground: from wartime Alaska to Washington and California; from a ten-year-old behind a cash register to a police officer, the juvenile courts and elected public office; from a young family of four to one spanning four generations. After 85 years, more than a dozen moves and a lifetime spent becoming part of the communities she called home, Nettie’s story came to a close on July 29, 2026.

A celebration of Nettie’s life will be held at The Mill at Lake Stevens, 1808 Main St., Lake Stevens, Washington, on Wednesday, September 23, at 3:00 p.m.

In honor of this amazing woman, feel free to wear purple. And, in keeping with Nettie’s tradition, we will start the service half an hour late.

(We’re kidding. Kind of.)