Jean Bakker Obituary (1922 - 2025) - Bremerton, Washington

Jean Elizabeth Thompson Bakker, known to all as Jean Bakker, took her leave on July 25, 2025. Born on June 2, 1922, in Pendleton, Oregon, her parents were Pharmacist Mason Thompson and homemaker Bertha Risley Thompson. Jean was the youngest of three siblings, and the family roots go back to the Oregon Trail, Ohio and New Jersey farms to the original settlers of Connecticut from Northern England. Jean attended Pendleton public schools and as a teen worked at the Pendleton Roundup. She attended Wheaton College in Illinois but cut her education short after Pearl Harbor to return home and work as a secretary for the wing commander at Pendleton Army Airfield, who provided the squadron who would soon perform the Doolittle Raid. In 1943 Jean married her Wheaton College sweetheart, Peter James Bakker, who would soon enter the US Navy as a chaplain. Peter and Jean would serve 24 years on both coasts and in 1950’s war-ravaged Malta, half of those years with Marines. Apollo astronauts sang in their Pawtuxet Naval Test Center choir in Maryland, and before and after the Navy, Jean served as the Pastor’s wife in four community churches in California, Oregon and Washington. Jean was mother to four children whose own family service ranges from Navy submarines to naval shipyard engineer to English and math teachers to Boeing and the Civil Air Patrol to infantry service in overseas combat zones. Jean was one of Jesus’ finest witnesses and a classic Great American. We remember Jean not just for who she was, but for the love she shared, the home and church congregations she nurtured, her devotion to her grandchildren and great grandchildren, and the many lives she touched. Her memory will continue to live on in the hearts of those who knew her. Please feel free to leave your memories and upload photos of Jean to the memorial page, as we remember the life of this truly remarkable woman.