Virginia Dee Pratt

Virginia (Jinny) Pratt (Mayr) died peacefully in her home surrounded by family & friends on May 2nd, 2018 in Beaverton Oregon at the age of 89. A celebration of her life will be held at 1 pm, June 2nd at the River View Cemetery’s Hospitality Room, 0300 SW Taylors Ferry Rd., Portland, Oregon 97219. Jinny is survived by her son, Jerry Pratt, 51 (of Portland); four grandchildren, Megan McMillan, 25 (of Eugene), Shannon McMillan, 23, Ian McMillan, 22, and Lucy, 7 (of Portland). Jinny was born on April 23rd, 1929 in Portland, Oregon to Chester and Edith Mayr. She and her sister, Shirley, grew up in NE Portland, attending Highland School and Rose City Park Elementary 1935–1943, and later graduated from Ulysses Grant High School in 1947. An avid roller-skater at the Imperial, the Rollerdrome and later, the Oaks Park Rollerskating Rink, it was skating where she met the man she would marry, Philip Pratt. They tied the knot at the Rose City Methodist Church on July 9th, 1949. Jinny & Phil eventually settled down in SW Portland where they raised their two kids Jill, born in 1961, and Jerry, born in 1966. While Phil found work with a variety of suitable employers throughout his career, Jinny’s career with Multnomah County proved to be the backbone for the family as she applied her excellent typing and clerical skill-set to serving the county for 30 years. After a brief time with Standard Insurance, she joined the ranks of clerks serving in Multnomah County District Court, beginning in 1954 as a Junior Clerk, and then steadily rose to the point of being deputized as a legal services clerk for the Multnomah County Sheriff by 1964. In the late 70’s she left the courthouse to serve in office management positions at Vector Control and Animal Control before retiring in 1984. Post-retirement, she served seasonally as an admissions data entry clerk for Portland Community College at the Sylvania Campus. Jinny was most passionate about raising their two kids, Jill & Jerry, and about rollerskating. She enjoyed being a working mother, helping provide for the family, owning her own cars, as well as spending time with their extensive network of friends and family – hopefully while enjoying long evenings skating at the Oaks Park Roller-Skating Rink. Even though she stopped actually skating in 1997, now over 20 years later, the staff at Oaks Park still fondly remember her. Jinny also excelled at other pursuits like sewing, cooking, caring for pets, card games, estate sales, and of course, genealogy. Long before modern DNA testing made knowing your family roots so popular, she was researching Phil’s and her own family’s family tree tracing their lineage back through Illinois, New York City, and Europe. In 2000, Jinny and her family suffered the tragic loss of their daughter, Jill McMillan, 39, to Breast Cancer. It was especially painful for Jinny considering how by that time, she herself had already survived against steep odds, two different cancer diagnoses, and treatments. In retirement, Jinny and Phil enjoyed traveling, especially several ship trips they took with Holland America. But for Jinny, it was her home sweet home that provided her the most comfort. Home with friends, her games, her pets and her simple daily routine. In 2003 Phil & Jinny moved to Pacific Pointe, a retirement community in nearby King City. After Phil’s death in 2006, Jinny moved to Laurel Parc in the Bethany area (NW Portland) to be closer to her son and his family, where she lived until moving to a higher level care facility in Beaverton in recent years. The family requests that donations in Jinny’s name be made to the American Cancer Society (Breast Cancer).