Kimberly Ann Cox El-Jamal

On August 9, 1960, Kimberly Ann Cox, age 59, was born in Mobile Town, Arizona to Everett Wayne Cox and Marie Ellen Jourdan. She grew up primarily in Oregon, where she enjoyed reading, writing and nature from an early age and throughout her life. She graduated from Neah-Kah-Nie High School in 1978 and went on to study foreign languages at Portland State University, where she received her bachelor’s degree in 1984. In 1990, she gave birth to her first daughter, Amira Tilgner (El-Jamal). She worked as an administrator in the public sector and in the medical field throughout her life. In 2001, she traveled to Guatemala to adopt her second daughter, Silvia El-Jamal. In 2010, Kimberly received her second bachelor’s degree in writing from Marylhurst University. In 2013, she traveled to New Hampshire where she completed her Maters of Fine Arts degree in Creative Writing from Southern New Hampshire University. Kimberly helped welcome her first grandson, Asher Moses Big Medicine in 2017.

Kimberly was a lifelong scholar that enjoyed learning in all its various forms. An avid reader and writer, one could almost always find her wrapped up in a book. While completing her MFA, she wrote a novel, entitled “Scrapbooking;” a suspense thriller about a mother gone mad. Kimberly was passionate about her beliefs from a young age; she believed in equality for everyone and a world where the earth was respected and taken care of. Until the end of her life, she actively worked to make the world a better place. Kimberly loved spending time with her daughters and her cat, Vincent Van Gogh. She had a green thumb and loved spending time in nature, whether she was gardening at home or visiting the Oregon Garden. Her quiet, peaceful personality radiated a deep and powerful understanding of the world around her.

Kimberly was taken from our world far, far too soon. She is preceded in death by her father, Everett and her sister, Marilyn. She is survived by her mother, Marie, two children, Amira and Silvia, brother Jim, sisters Jeannette, Jan, Dorothy and Juli, grandsons Asher and Amira’s baby on the way, her cat Vincent and many cousins, nieces, nephews and friends. May you rest in nature until we meet again, our beautiful, kind soul.