Helping Children A Passion For Jacquie Simpson Family Members Reminisce About The Volunteer And ‘Super Mom’ Who Had Three Children And Eight Grandchildren

Jacquie Simpson’s door was open to everyone.

“The first time you came to her house, you were a guest,” said Sunny Chaney at a recent memorial service for her friend. “The second time, you were family. Better wipe your feet and remove your hat, because you are at home.”

Jacquie, 51, had a massive heart attack while driving. Her car swerved into a ditch near Highway 41 and Mullan Avenue. She died four days later, on Dec. 13, without regaining consciousness.

Her family was stunned.

“She was perfectly fine when she left here,’ said her daughter, Angie Anderson. She operates a day care at her home, where her mother had helped out for the past year.

Helping children was Jacquie’s greatest passion. She was a volunteer for 27 years with the Boy Scouts. She taught 4-H kids how to care for animals and pitched in with the Christmas For All charity.

When her three children were young, she was involved in their schools. She doted on her eight grandchildren. She missed, by two days, the chance to hold her first great-granddaughter.

Jacquie was born Feb. 8, 1949, in Spokane to Francis R. and Garnetta E. (Daniels) Wines. She attended Wellpinit (Wash.) High School where she was a cheerleader, recalled her brother Ricky Wines of Spokane.

“She was always happy,” Wines said. Jacquie was a math whiz. She also taught her four younger brothers to swim.

She wasn’t easily daunted.

“It was nothing for her to tear a carburetor apart on the kitchen table,” he said.

Jacquie was a nursing student and a single mom with one son when she met Jay Simpson at a Grange Hall dance.

“She was sitting on one side of the room, and I was on the other,” said Jay, who now lives in Hayden. “I turned to a friend and said, `I’m going to marry her.’ “She was so full of love, it was pathetic. I met a lot of girls, but they weren’t the same.”

The Simpsons were married for 31 years. Jacquie never returned to nursing school, but put her skills to use at various jobs: sewing, providing home health care, working for Head Start and the Boy Scouts.

Mostly, she was a super mom and volunteer. When her husband was leader of Troop 13, she was by his side. She sold Christmas trees, ran First Aid Meets, organized Klondike Derbies and slept out at Camporees.

She won the Old Missions District Award of Merit given to outstanding volunteers. The safety of youngsters was her highest priority, recalled district director Mike Jensen. “Scouts and adults didn’t even consider breaking or bending a BSA rule when Jacquie was in charge. Everybody knew better.”

For years, Jay Simpson worked for Jacklin Seed and the family lived in a company farmhouse outside Post Falls. The children - Jim, Jay Jr. and Angie - say their friends were always welcome. They had to follow house rules, though. They knew better than to try to keep their hats on during a meal, or put their elbows on the table. They were expected to pitch in with chores.

“If the kids disrespected somebody, that would really make her mad,” said Jay.

Jim remembers his mom as self-sacrificing and determined. “If that woman wanted it to happen, it would happen.”

For years, Jay said, Jacquie made all of his clothes except his jeans. She taught her sons to cook and sew. She was less successful with her tomboy daughter.

“She tried to get me to do the girly things. It wasn’t me,” said Angie, noting that she did, however, learn how to change the oil in her car.

Jacquie read three or four books a week. She collected Tupperware and was crazy about Disney cartoons. Her favorite color was green. Her lucky number was 13. She wasn’t a churchgoer, but was spiritual. “We believe he’s with you every day of your life,” Jay Simpson said.

Jay has heart trouble, and did not expect to outlive his wife even though she’d had a cardiac arrest six years ago. That time, it struck her at a scouting event.

During follow-up tests, doctors discovered that Jacquie was diabetic. But they could find no heart problems.

“They said it might never happen again,” Jay said.

If there had been time for Jacquie to leave her friends with final words, her husband said, she would say: “Stop and enjoy your family. Put your family first.”