Elizabeth Ann Julee

Elizabeth Ann Julee (Childress, Bridges, Johnson), age 81, of Portland, Oregon, passed away March 21, 2025 in her home.

Liz was born in January 1944 and raised on a farm in Cadiz, Kentucky. She attended Trigg County public schools walking one mile to and from her one-room schoolhouse for primary school. She studied every night by kerosene lamp until the farm had electricity. A very studious student, she graduated with honors from Trigg County High School. After high school, she earned a degree as a medical lab technician which took her from Kentucky to Tennessee, Indiana and Nebraska. Ultimately, she received her degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center in 1981 and became a Physician Assistant and practiced until her retirement in 2005. She was married three times and met her life-partner-turned-husband Peter Neketin in 1986 and they have been together ever since. In 1981 she moved with her daughter, Tara, to Cedar Vale, Kansas, where she started her PA career working in a small rural town in which she was able to practice medicine in a clinic and hospital setting. She also assisted in weekly surgery, conducted hospital rounds and many ER shifts. It was a great training ground to jump-start her career in medicine. Wanting to leave small town life behind and having spent time in larger cities, Liz had one more big move in her future. She spent a week with a friend in Oregon and fell in love with the ocean and the evergreens. Pulling roots up once more, she moved with her daughter to Salem, Oregon in 1985. She worked at Fairview Training Center and finally Kaiser Permanente. She and Peter moved to the Portland area in 1993 and ultimately settled in the Sellwood neighborhood in SE Portland.

Liz was incredibly dedicated to her patients and outside of work was actively involved in social justice activities and was an advocate for gun safety education; she served on the board of Ceasefire Oregon for many years. Liz and Peter enjoyed time with dear friends, hiking and camping at the Oregon Coast, talks at the Oregon Archaeological Society and many trips in the Northwestern and Southwestern United States to visit Native American Rock Art and Petroglyph sites.  A feminist and advocate for women’s rights, she hosted many gatherings in celebration of International Women’s Day and participated in the Women’s March in Portland in 2017 with her daughter and granddaughter.  In 1990 she legally changed her last name to Julee to honor her maternal grandmothers, Julia Ann and Bettie Lee.

After her retirement, she anointed herself as the official “Activities Coordinator” spending time with her grandchildren and helping get them to school events and various sport and choir activities. She was an accomplished seamstress and taught many of her grandchildren to sew and to love the art of sewing. She spent many nights with needle and thread making special holiday outfits, first day of school outfits, Barbie and doll clothes, prom dresses and her daughter’s wedding dress. She loved her family, friends, butterflies, the color yellow, the ocean and doted on her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Through all her moves, she found a strong community in the congregations of the 1st  UU Church of Omaha, 1st UU Church of Wichita, UU Congregation of Salem and the First UU Church of Portland.

She is survived by her husband, Peter Neketin, her daughter Tara (Chris) Johnson-Medinger, bonus daughters, Vickie Bischof, Wyndee Brown and Michelle Irons, bonus sons, Will (Denise) Anderson and Mike Neketin, siblings Stan (Deborah) Bridges and Margaret Curtis, 15 grandchildren, and 10 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her mother Helen Childress, great-grandmother Betty Lee Cameron, step-father Jesse Bridges and older brother Denzil Bridges.

Please celebrate the life of Liz Julee and join us for a memorial service on Saturday May 10, 2025 at the First Unitarian Church of Portland at 2pm with a reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation in Liz’s name to Ceasefire Oregon or the First Unitarian Church of Portland.