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Class Notes

Class of 1977

  • 08/17/2016

    Constance “Connie” Emerson Crooker died April 10, 2015, at her home. She was 68 years old.

    Connie was born July 23, 1946, in Portland, Maine, to Reverend Charles W. Crooker and Elizabeth (MacGregor) Crooker Bates. She earned a BA from Reed College.

    Connie established a criminal defense practice focusing on the Hispanic community and led efforts in Oregon to professionalize the use of interpreters in the courts. She was also the first woman in Oregon to contract with the state to run a Public Defenders office, serving the community of Tillamook for many years.

    Following her retirement Connie avidly pursued a wide array of interests, including skiing, hiking, camping, dancing, singing, and playing the guitar. She also relished traveling abroad and studying foreign languages. One of her passions was writing. Connie wrote and published several books, including Melanoma Mama: On Life, Death, and Tent Camping, in which she shared her experiences on a solo cross-country trip to celebrate her unexpected reprieve from ongoing cancer treatments, and Doc Jackson’s Letters Home: A Combat Medic’s 1968 Letters From Vietnam, which was released on April 30, 2015, the 40th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam conflict.

    Survivors include her three siblings and their spouses: Carol and Deane Farnsworth, Charles and Adrian Crooker, and Catherine Crooker and Griff O’Brien. Connie is also survived by numerous nieces and nephews.

 

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