Eleanor Rose Alexander Nunn
1/13/1941 9/18/2018


Eleanor Rose passed away suddenly of a heart attack on Tuesday, September 18th after a short stay in the hospital. She was born at the beginning of World War II and like her parting from this world she entered sooner than expected. They say she was so small she could fit in a shoebox and was kept safely in the top drawer of the dresser. Open of course. Because of her stature she got the nickname Pee Wee that later morphed into Dee Dee.

Her first few years were spent between Astoria, OR in logging camps with her parents, Ruby and Jack and in Portland, OR with her Grandma Rose. Although living in the logging camp was brief, she counted it among one of her favorite childhood memories. A few years later, her brother John was born and when she was 10 years old sister Patricia arrived. Much later came brother Stan. Dee
Dee was raised in the Catholic tradition and attended parochial schools. During the later part of her grade school years, the divorce of her parents would cause a number of problems. Eventually these difficulties would guide her to St. Mary of the Valley High School.

There her life took an interesting twist, when she entered the convent. She spent a year as a novice, and as she prepared to take her vows she realized the sisterhood would have to go on without her. Back in the secular world, she attended her parent's alma mater, Jefferson High School in Portland, and graduated early. After high school she decided to go live with her dad and his second family down in San Francisco. There she would meet her younger sisters, Gayle, Mandy and begin a lasting friendship with her stepmother Melbe.

Soon she was heading down to Corona, CA to go to college. While going to school she worked as a Fuller Brush door-to-door salesperson. On her sales route she encountered her future husband, Jim Nunn washing his corvette, shirtless in the warm southern California sunshine. Their courtship may have been typical but not their love song, "The Battle of New Orleans". Dee Dee and Jim moved to San Francisco where they started their family with the arrival of Jimmy, Stephan and Little Mande; because there was already a Mandy in the family, there was a need to distinguish the two. The Nunn family lived in many places thanks to her keypunch abilities and Jim's jack-of-all-trades. They bought their first home in San Bruno, moved on to Millbrae and eventually left urban life to join the back to the land movement with the purchase of a small 5-acre farm outside of Vacaville, CA. Both she and Jim enjoyed finding and collecting antiques and remodeling houses. Her phone company job gave them plenty of freedom to move on, so off to New Plymouth, ID, Minden, NV, Blythe, and Victorville, CA. Wherever they moved to and out of, a beautiful home was left behind.

During the 60's early 70's, she contemplated moving the family to Australia if there was any chance her boys could be drafted. She was staunchly anti-war. This was also a time when she would begin her lifelong study of metaphysics, religion, spirituality and the after-life, which deeply transformed her life. Unity Church became her choice for spiritual comfort and the Daily Word would start each day. She studied Reiki and meditated daily with special affirmations directed towards her family, friends and the world. Her library was filled with an eclectic mix of metaphysical, new age, positive thought, health and self-help books and music that she gladly shared.

Deed would have to withstand a couple years of major loss of dear family members. In 1994 she would lose both her mother and brother within a few months of each other. By 1996 she and Jim would also have to endure the pain of losing their daughter, Mande, who left behind 5 month old Austin, 3 year old Zach and husband Royal. Her profound grief was somewhat softened with her significant role in raising her grandchildren and helping Royal with his music career. They all packed up and moved to Nashville and later Mt. Juliet, TN.

There were many good years in the Southeast, in spite of her dad passing away in 2008, coincidentally the same date as her daughter. But another sad unexpected turn of events occurred with the passing of Jim in 2011. With all the different places they had lived, Deed dreamed of making it back to Oregon. After Jim's passing and exactly a year later Pat's husband Bob's passing, she started looking for a house in the Portland vicinity. She found the house of her dreams in Oregon City, a mile away from her sister Pat. She loved her house. She loved decorating it. She loved the size of it because there was room for family, friends and several kitty cats. She enjoyed the next 5 years with her grandson Austin joining her and son Jimmy, wife Tracy, and grandchildren, Ali, Mandie and Wyatt close by in Portland, along with numerous visits from son Steve and grandson Zach. Also, dear to her were nieces Christi, Stephanie, grandnephew's Jake, Logan, and Christi's husband Doug. Near and far were, brother John's children, Sean and Christina Alexander, as well as extended family on the Alexander, Nodurft and Nunn side. She had even more family in Washington on the Sweet side with her sister Mandy, husband Jesse, nieces Melbe Ann, Arij, Rosie and their husbands Patrick, Joe and grand nephews and nieces, Matteo, Brodie, Jesse, Conner, Sierra and William. In northern California were her sister and sister-in-law Gayle and Wanda.

What we can hold on to is how well, happy and at peace she felt her final day on the planet. Loving family always at her side maintaining a connection for the rest of us who couldn't be there. She had a kind, loving, generous spirit that never grew old, and we imagine her on that ultimate journey, out into the vast universe, which so intrigued her.