On March 29, 1949, Vanessa Alexis Jamison was born to US Air Force Colonel Edward Joseph and Mrs. Patricia Joseph at Billy Mitchell Air Force Base on Long Island, New York. She was the oldest of four children; the rest were her brothers. On October 16, 2024, after a months-long fight against cancer, Vanessa passed away peacefully at home in Netarts, Oregon, in the presence of her loving husband, Jon, and other family members and friends.
Her father worked in military intelligence, and while still a toddler, Vanessa’s family was transferred to California for a time, then to Tripoli, Libya, where she went to kindergarten. The family moved frequently, primarily around the Middle East (Turkey, Lebanon, Libya, and even to Canada’s northeastern province, Labrador). Vanessa said that their Tripoli assignment was the longest time (five and a half years) that she ever lived in one place with her parents.
By the time she graduated from high school in Turkey, she had grown to love the Middle East. She attended American University in Paris for a brief time, but soon left, feeling a pull back to the Middle East. She loved its peoples, languages, and vibrant cultures, its vivid colors, fabulous food, and beautiful textiles. She returned there, roaming widely as far east as Afghanistan, south into Africa and all over Europe. Although Vanessa loved the United States, her experiences in other regions of the world gave her larger insights and perspectives about her home country, an understanding that she always valued highly.
After her adventures in the Middle East, she came home to America to study further, majoring in anthropology with a minor in psychology, and graduating from the University of California at Santa Cruz. Her friends say she was a generous and loving spirit who enjoyed people immensely, and was curious about them wherever she went. One friend says, “Vanessa felt completely at home with people wherever she was, whether in a coffeehouse in Paris, visiting friends in California, or talking to vendors in a Turkish bazaar on the Asian side of Istanbul.” Another friend said, “Vanessa was the life of every party, the center of it all. She loved people.”
After what her friends jokingly call their “party years,” Vanessa founded and operated a wholesale flower business in the Santa Cruz area for nearly two decades where she met her future husband, Jon Genens. A former Army infantry medic during the Vietnam War, Jon was awarded the Bronze Star with two “Vs” for valor. He worked for twenty years at Lick Astronomical Observatory in the Diablo Mountains east of San Jose, California before retiring in 2008.
Jon and Vanessa married in 2004 and moved to Netarts, Oregon in 2008. Their home is warm and welcoming, decorated with wonderful art from the Middle East and Asia.
Since 2009, Vanessa worked as Director of the “Court Appointed Special Advocate” (CASA) Program of Tillamook County until she retired last December. She recruited and trained many volunteers to work as court appointed advocates for individual children from troubled families. In addition to supervising and supporting her CASA volunteers, Vanessa carried her own heavy caseload of kids, working with up to a dozen kids and families at a time. She worked with them and the court system during the daytime, and often responded to emergency calls at night and on weekends.
When the families she helped learned that she was ill, expressions of good will and gratitude poured in via phone calls, emails, letters and texts. One mother wrote to Vanessa, saying, “You changed our family’s life and we will always love you for that.”
A local circuit court judge said, “Vanessa, you have been very important to this community and county. It is because of you that CASA existed here, and you helped so many people.”
Many good people help others who are in crisis. They create pathways and bridges for those who suffer, where only chasms of conflict and pain had existed before. Vanessa Genens was one of those good people. She truly gave her heart and her time to those who needed help. She is survived by her devoted husband, Jon Genens, brothers Ted Joseph and Bruce Joseph, and niece, Monica Joseph. Her youngest brother, James Joseph, and their parents pre-deceased her.
Details for a memorial service and a celebration of Vanessa’s life are not yet clear, but gifts to honor her memory and her work can be sent to: CASA of Multnomah, Washington, Columbia and Tillamook Counties, 1401 NE 68th Avenue, Portland, OR 97213.