Obituary of Jacqueline Katherine Santos

The matriarch of the Santos family and the Grandmother of Chico Swimming, Jackie Santos passed away of natural causes on Friday, October 1^st, She was 89.

 

Jacqueline Katherine Bowington was born an only child to a Texas Ranger & WWI veteran father, and a Southern-Bell Baptist mother, in El Paso, Texas.  Given the combination of strength, grit, belief-in-oneself and deep love of the Lord, Jackie lived a life worthy of note and admiration.  As a tom-boy young girl, Jackie won the New Mexico State Fair for her prized sheep, was a star high school tennis player and later in life raced airplanes, but at the heart of everything was her family.

 

Jackie married Tony Santos in 1956 and had six children.  Tony was a well-known and very successful builder-developer in Chico through the 1970’s. Jackie was his partner, ever encouraging Tony, and laid the seed of self-belief that led to deals as diverse as the “Julie Ann”, “Roque” and “Jack Scott” apartments (likely the first studio apartments in Chico), downtown office buildings, multiple retail buildings along Mangrove Ave, residential homes, the Basque Norte restaurant and apartments complex, and the creation of Santos Vineyards in the Sierra Nevada Foothills in 1972, whose grapes live on today in some bottles of La Rocca, Roney, Doe Mill, and Bertagna Wine. 

 

After a painful and tumultuous divorce in the mid-70’s Jackie was left to raise six kids on her own.  Upon her bully-pulpit of self-belief, her words of power were intoxicating and full of truth.  Her ever encouraging “of course-you-can-do-it” attitude for excellence in academics and athletics were the driving force for her children and grandchildren’s successes. 

 

Academically, all six of her kids graduated college and then combined for another five post-graduate degrees, while the first six of her fourteen grandchildren are in college with one already in law school.

 

Athletically, the story is quite special.  With Jackie as the cornerstone of inspiration, all six of her children started and played point guard for Chico High School - how fun was that?!  One was a quarterback, another a golfer, both set school and league records, but swimming was really the Santos sport.

 

From our small town of Chico, three of Jackie’s children qualified for U.S. Swimming Nationals, with two of them inducted into the Chico Sports Hall of Fame:  David and Roque Santos.  Swimming for Cal Berkeley, and each a team captain, between them they won two individual Pac-10 Championships, two US Open Championships, two team NCAA National Championships, one American Record, multiple Master’s World Records, 15-times individual NCAA All-American honors, two Olympic Trial finalists, one Olympic Trials National Champion and the first Chico born Olympian.  In gratitude and respect for Jackie’s role, the Grandmother of Chico Swimming was herself the first to be inducted into the Chico Aqua Jets Hall of Fame.

 

The big-heart-of-love, that was Jackie, was open to all.  She wanted her house to be the 2^nd home of her children’s friends.  Warm, loving, open and always willing to jump to the care of others or feed one more belly, Jackie built a Village: an old-fashion network of families looking out for one another. The reciprocity was infectious, with her children forming strong bonds with other adults (often filling gaps a single mother could not).  In turn, Jackie became the second mother to dozens and dozens of Chico kids.  Recent Facebook posts of her passing included many comments of the “second mom” and of the positive impact Jackie had on their lives. 

 

Jackie’s voice of love and passion extended in many ways into her later years.  After 32-years as a real estate agent, Jackie spent another 15-years working at the In-Motion-Fitness swim school.  Socially she helped form the “Monday Night Football Group”, a posse of coaches and teachers that gathered regularly for over 30 years. This band-of-love and friendship looked out for one another, and for Jackie, to the very end.  And as a proud Texan and Republican, Jackie donated her time to the local Republican Women’s Group and helped to start and support their scholar-athlete scholarship program for entering college freshman, proudly awarded to her granddaughter Jamie in 2018. 

 

Jackie leaves behind her six children, TR, David, Julie, Jackson, Roque and PJ, her 14 Grandchildren: Jessica, Sydney, Jamie, Jordan, Scout, TR, Shaila, Elaina, Shelby, Landon, Enso, Siena, Wade and Skye.

 

God Bless Jackie Santos, the richest lady in town.

 

In lieu of flowers please go to Jackie’s Go-fund-me account:

https://www.gofundme.com/f/m4pca9-in-loving-memory-of-jackie-santos?qid=e580951128c1f6b10187e71fd5e28513&fbclid=IwAR2j51PKepDWy3WQo5OPSJ-NZ-7yeDcrTZaE07j04I8p8973f5AfRhDU5W8

 

Services will be at 11am on Saturday October 23^rd at St. John the Baptist Catholic Church.

 

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