By Mike Hazlip–
Community leaders past and present gathered on Saturday to remember a pillar of the Citrus Heights community who passed away last year.
Jean Duncan’s husband of six decades, Jack, emceed the event with more than 200 people in attendance. Duncan said he met his wife as a senior in high school. The two were married in 1954 and moved to Citrus Heights when the lumber industry in Oregon declined, he said.
Duncan passed away Sept. 11, 2020 after a five year battle with COPD and lung cancer. Her celebration of life was postponed because of the pandemic.
“She was a fire cracker, she was an inspiration.” Jack Duncan said.
Former city manager Henry Tingle said Duncan had a significant impact on the design of the Community Center, where Saturday’s memorial was held. Tingle said plans for a multi-purpose gymnasium were almost complete when Duncan called for a design that would serve as a banquet hall.
“The reason this Community Center looks the way it does right now is because of Jack’s wife, Jean,” Tingle said.
Duncan was involved with the chamber of commerce, Citrus Heights Rotary Club, and Soroptimist International of Citrus Heights.
Diane Ebbitt, the Citrus Heights Chamber of Commerce’s executive director, said she first met Jean at a Relay for Life, an event for the American Cancer Society. Ebbitt said Duncan provided candles that circled the field at the event.
Sylvan Cemetery Board Trustee Jim Monteton also spoke, recalling Duncan’s effort to raise money for a bell tower at the cemetery.
“That’s how she is,” Monteton said. “She sees something that needs to be done, she was committed to the city and everything that went on in the city. Her and Jack.”
Family members and friends spoke for more than an hour sharing stories of the woman known as “Mrs. Citrus Heights.”
The outpouring of support left Jack Duncan at an emotional loss for words.
“As you’ve all heard, I’m the luckiest person in the world,” he said.
