Director’s Desk | Jennifer was a light and her legacy lives on at Street Roots
The swallowtail butterfly clung to Jennifer Bradford like a corsage. It had landed on her at her MAX stop and traveled all the way to Street Roots, a bright, yellow-winged blossom below her right shoulder. The word spread quickly at Street Roots, and people went outside to witness Jennifer and the butterfly that hot July day.
It made such sense that a butterfly would choose Jennifer.
She was exceptional at finding the beautiful in the mundane, hacks in the hard-to-achieve, love in survival.
Born 54 years ago to Glen Kihl Anderson and Nancy Ragina Cooley in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Jennifer Bradford died Oct. 4 at age 54. She was the mother of four sons — Jacob Aaron Anderson, 31; John Paul Tanner, 23; Glenn Mikael Tanner, 22; and William Elijah Bradford, 15, of Portland — who described her as “the best mother possible” and a “warrior.”
Jennifer joined Street Roots after she suffered a stroke and the amputation of her leg eight years ago. She recovered by listening to music and coloring, while living with her eldest son, Jacob. He encouraged her to begin selling Street Roots as she had encouraged him and so many others.
It wasn’t until the early days of the pandemic, when everyone who could pitch in did, that I realized how much we had missed out on Jennifer’s exceptional administrative abilities and work ethic. Because of her stroke, she sometimes struggled to form her words, and I learned I needed to slow down and listen to her. She had so much to contribute.
She would gather daily with other Street Roots vendors to pack supply kits for people surviving outside. Her son, William, would sometimes accompany her, an honorary Street Roots member who had his own badge.
Jennifer moved into a lead ambassador role in 2021. Raven Drake, who started the Street Roots ambassador program, describes her as a “chosen sister” whose “smile and laugh could mend wounds inside.”
Max Jimenez-Sutton came to Street Roots through a Pacific University internship and began working with Raven and Jennifer. He told me that Jennifer’s approach inspired his work now as a Janus Youth Yellow Brick Road outreach worker, as well as coordinator of the Street Roots ambassador program.
“She had such a great ability to work with the ambassadors and make sure they did outreach and completed projects but in a way that was rooted in love,” Jimenez-Sutton said.
Jennifer joined the Street Roots staff as an administrative assistant in August 2022, usually accompanied to work by her beloved dog, Jazzy.
“Jennifer had a way of making those she knew and loved feel limitless, cherished, and infinitely beautiful,” Kodee Zarnke, who joined the staff the same month as Jennifer, said. “She was the embodiment of empathy and compassion and your number one cheerleader. She felt deeply and experienced life intensely. I will always think of Jen when I feel a spark of childlike wonder, wear the color olive green, see a yellow butterfly and love with abandon.”
As an administrative assistant, Jennifer administered surveys Street Roots ran with Portland State University, distributed payments to vendors, helped run the Mobile Journalism program, distributed media equipment and supported work on the Rose City Resource. She gathered mail with a keen commitment because hundreds of people on the streets receive their mail at Street Roots.
She also worked on the Street Roots capital campaign to renovate a building for Street Roots to better support its vendors. She was particularly committed to the effort to retrofit the century-old building with an elevator because she was never able to see the second floor. She cared that people on the streets had all the support they could get and that it was delivered with dignity.
“Street Roots vendors are part of the community,” she said. “The fact that the new Street Roots headquarters will be highly visible on (West Burnside Street) let's the community know ‘we’re here!’”
Before Street Roots, before her series of strokes, Jennifer worked at the Portland Women’s Crisis Line, now called Call to Safety; Transition Project’s Jean’s Place Shelter; and the Salvation Army Female Emergency Shelter, or SAFES.
Shannon Singleton managed the SAFES shelter at the time.
“She cared so deeply about the women in shelter and would often have really deep and meaningful connections,” Singleton said.
Marietta Louden, a Street Roots vendor, worked with Jennifer at SAFES.
“Jennifer created an atmosphere for the community that was mellow and calm,” Marietta recalled. “Jennifer Bradford was a beautiful person.”
So many people describe Jennifer as a beautiful person, and she, in turn, reflected that sentiment onto those she encountered. She would, in fact, greet people in her charming way: ‘Good morning, beautiful!’
At her memorial, her friend Marla Duby let us in on a secret. Since it was hard to remember names after her stroke, Jennifer substituted “beautiful” for names.
We all got a good laugh when we found that out. What an extraordinary strategy.
Street Roots is an award-winning weekly investigative publication covering economic, environmental and social inequity. The newspaper is sold in Portland, Oregon, by people experiencing homelessness and/or extreme poverty as means of earning an income with dignity. Street Roots newspaper operates independently of Street Roots advocacy and is a part of the Street Roots organization. Learn more about Street Roots. Support your community newspaper by making a one-time or recurring gift today.
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