June 5, 2019
Page 5
Capitol Funeral for Senator Winters
C ontinued froM f ront
2003. She was vice chairwoman
of the influential Appropriation
Committee and was the first Afri-
can American person to hold the
post of Republican Caucus leader
in 2017.
Winters had struggled in recent
years with ailing health, having
suffered a heart attack that put her
out for the entire 2016 legislative
session and announced in 2017
that she was undergoing lung can-
cer treatment.
Before becoming a politician,
she founded a small chain of
successful barbecue restaurants,
called Jackie’s Ribs, located in the
Salem and Portland areas in the
1980s and 90s.
Having grown up in Portland,
Winters told Portland Observer
reporter Beverly Corbell in De-
cember 2017 that it was emotional
opening a restaurant “right smack
in downtown Portland,” where
years prior black-owned business-
es were not wanted and where
there were other restaurants that
she and other African Americans
were barred from entering.
Born in Kansas, Winters moved
to the Portland area as a small
child where she survived the 1948
Vanport Flood where the only pos-
sessions she had left were her dog,
Tippy, and her doll.
Her family then found a home
in the Albina neighborhood of
north and northeast Portland.
Describing the neighborhood’s
African American participation in
commerce and community gather-
ings at the time as “a lot of small
businesses with over 100 social
clubs.”
She said before the flood, Vanport
was a vibrant, self-sufficient, and in-
tegrated town, “A total community
and we had our own schools, had
our own shopping centers.”
Winters previously worked
for Republicans Gov. Tom Mc-
Call and later Gov. Victor Atiyeh,
where she warmed to the political
party that she remembered back
then as the ones who got things
done.
Among many of the causes she
backed was criminal justice re-
form and civil rights. On April 18
she cast her final vote in the Leg-
islature when she championed a
significant criminal justice reform
bill to pass in the Senate, which
now awaits the governor’s signa-
ture, and would roll back manda-
tory minimum sentences for teen-
agers charged with violent crimes.
House Speaker Tina Kotek
lauded her achievements when
she gave a statement on Winters’
death last Wednesday.
“Senator Jackie Winters was a
trail blazer, a truly inspiring figure
in the history of Oregon politics.
Senator Winters believed, to her
photo Courtesy v anport M osaiC
A historic photo shows Sen. Jackie Winters (right) as a child with
her dog, Tippy, and her doll, the only possessions she had after
surviving the 1948 Vanport Flood. A small business owner in both
Portland and Salem and the only African-American Republican to
be elected to the legislature Winters died May 29 at the age of 82.
core, in justice and fairness. I am
saddened by her passing but am
deeply grateful that she lived to
see the passage of youth justice
reform last week.”
Winter’s family requests dona-
tions be made in lieu of flowers to
one of the senator’s favorite cause
including Oregon Capitol Fund,
Liberty House, and Oregon Food
Bank, which she is credited with
helping form in the 1970s. The Of-
fice of Senator Jackie Winters can
receive cards and remembrances
for her family at 900 Court Street
NE, S-301, Salem, OR 97301.
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