Jacqueline Surratt Partin, 91, passed away peacefully on March 18, 2025 at her home in Gloucester, Virginia. Born on January 14, 1934 in Itawamba County, Mississippi, Jackie was the second of three of Eula Mae and Clelon M. Surratt’s daughters (Madge Lawrence, Joyce North), in a family that experienced much hardship during the Great Depression. Her father worked in a sawmill for $1 a day and then joined the U.S. Army. Jackie spent most of her early years with her maternal grandparents, “Mama” and “Papa” Page, in Red Bay, Ala., learning to drive a tractor and help on the family farm. Her mother taught her to shoot a rifle (but not how to cook). Jackie’s grandfather, James Thomas Page, was a major influence in her life, and taught her that the most important thing in her life was to make sure that she left the world a better place than she found it.
When World War II was over, Jackie, with her mother and sisters, was reunited with her father. The family moved to Michigan, and she thrived in the wonderful small-town community life of Gull Lake; these were very happy memories for Jackie. Army transfers to Temple, Texas, and then to Germany, followed. Jackie attended a U.S. military boarding school in Nuremberg, Germany, where she joined the Rifle Club, and became the best shot in the group. At boarding school, she met her future husband, John Partin. After graduation, Jackie left for college at Purdue University, and John went to the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Until they were married, the couple saw each other just once a year.
While both Jackie and John were accepted to medical school at the University of Cincinnati, Jackie gave up her place in medical school when they married in 1955 and started a family. Jackie continued her interest in science and medicine, and in 1956, started her career as a scientist at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. With her husband John, she studied a disease of children called Reye’s Syndrome, using electron microscopy to study cellular structures. During that time, Jackie discovered Julia Child and watched episodes of her cooking show on an old black and white television. She learned to cook, and it became a lifelong hobby. Jackie taught her children to cook and encouraged them to practice by having each child cook dinner one night a week. Later in life, Jackie coached her grandchildren and her home caregivers to try new recipes and improve their cooking skills.
After many happy years at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, husband John was named the first Chairman of Pediatrics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. John and Jackie moved to Old Field, New York, where they shared a research laboratory and enjoyed their waterfront home on Long Island.
Jackie and John retired in 1995. They bought a state-of-the-art Bluebird recreational vehicle. For the next 20 years, all vacations involved “the Big Blue Bus,” and many took place along the Texas coastline, with bird-watching and grandchildren.
John and Jackie moved to a home surrounded by trees, on a beautiful creek in the Middle Peninsula of Virginia. When challenged to find new pastimes in retirement, Jackie chose oysters. She, along with Leslie Bowie and Lyn Layer, founded TOGA, the Tidewater Oyster Gardeners Association, dedicated to teaching citizens how to grow oysters from oyster seed spawned in a laboratory, in an effort to improve the water quality in the Chesapeake Bay.
Visits from children, grandchildren, sisters and other family and friends filled the years with joy. Jackie’s life in Gloucester was enriched by her treasured friends, Stacie Foley and Susan Malcolm. Jackie and John spent every moment sharing their love of family, education, science, roses, birds and cooking.
Jackie is survived by her beloved sister, Joyce North; children, Beth Partin (Nick) Evans, Mary, Kathy (John Gieser), Jill, and Jonathan (Linda) Partin, as well as her cherished grandchildren, Nathaniel Luther Galea, Jon Evans, Jaq Evans, Taylor (Mason) Rock, J.P. Gieser, Calvin Partin, and Char Partin; a great-granddaughter, Evelyn Rock, and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews. Jacqueline was predeceased by her sister, Madge Lawrence, husband, John Calvin Partin, and grandson, Alan Francis Partin Dowling.
Jackie was blessed to have a devoted team of dear friends and caregivers, who helped her to remain in her home in the last part of her life. Jackie valued education and was proud of her caregivers who were pursuing their education, catching study breaks whenever they could, and telling her about the material they were currently studying, or a new recipe they were trying.
Jackie Partin’s memorial will be private. In place of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Virginia Institute of Marine Science General Graduate Student Support Fund (#3337); or, the “Alan Dowling Memorial Fund” through online donations at giving.case.edu/law (please select “Other” under the “Designation” section and denote “Alan Dowling Memorial Fund” for the “Special Instructions”) or by check to the CWRU Office of Advancement Services, 10969 Cedar Avenue, Suite #300, Cleveland, Ohio 44105-7035.