Jill Lynch was passionate about learning and books.

Her obituary tells about her life this way: She was born Aug. 10, 1943 to Charles (Bud) and Irene (Tull) Lynch and lived the first year in a tiny log cabin built by her father when he was 17. Many years later, she hosted a family gathering to rebuild that cabin on the family homestead, which was, in her last 30 years, her home.

She left a four-bedroom ranch house (and in her last years, lived in) to attend Lewis-Clark Normal School. There, she met and married an Orofino hometown boy, Ken Gough. After graduation, they worked on the Diamond Lake lookout in Oregon and then taught grade school for three years in Myrtle Creek, Ore. After working to put Ken through law school, she then entered law school herself, complementing her earlier studies in geology, anthropology, chemistry and sociology with a University of Oregon Doctorate of Jurisprudence. Although they divorced, she and Ken remained close friends for life.

Her journey through law saw her as a law clerk, trial attorney in Eugene and Roseburg, Ore., Lane County Attorney, a legal aid practice at the White Mountain Apache Reservation and a prosecuting attorney in Parker, Ariz. With the Eugene Police Department and Lane County Sheriff's Department, she pioneered a rape victim advocacy program.

A break in law practice became a three-year spiritual journey in the Southwest and Mexico, she and a dog named Wilson traveling in a 1967 GMC motorhome with a Datsun pickup in tow.

She returned to Orofino in 1988 after her father's death to support and later become a caregiver to her mother. Many trips they had to the North Fork, the Lochsa and even as far as White Sulphur Springs, Mont.

A stint as a volunteer at the Clearwater Memorial Public Library turned into a job as a librarian, from which she retired and to quote, "A bad day as a librarian is better than a good day as a lawyer, anytime."

She was a strong voice of community service and as an advocate for social justice, she spent her retirement years in Rotary, Book Club, Garden Club, registering people to vote, supporting the museum, gathering signatures for Medicaid expansion , helping with library book sales, and banding together with many close friends, Cleo, Deb, Cindy, Sandy, Lynn, Grace, just to name a few of many.

Jill was admired for her physical and psychological strength in the face of many challenges, for her sense of humor, by being fiercely independent and loyal to friends and family. She loved animals and tools; she kept a poem on her refrigerator titled "The Hardware Store as Proof of the Existence of God'. Her house was floor to ceiling with books.

After many miles and adventures, Jill Irene Lynch died in her hometown of Orofino Dec. 19, 2019.

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