Jennifer Erin Thurston

Jennifer Erin Thurston was born in Chapel Hill, NC on May 13, 1970, to parents Mollie Warlick and Peter Thurston. She died in Westchester County, NY on January 17, due to medical complications after a brief illness. She is survived on the Warlick side by her mother, Mollie Warlick, (Asheville, NC) and brother, Callahan Warlick, (Christina Steiner, Chapel Hill, NC), her aunts and uncles M.E. Warlick, Billy Warlick, Laurie Warlick McSpadden and Robert Warlick. On the Thurston side she is survived by her stepmother Franny Patricio (Telluride, CO), her sisters Christina Thurston and Harmony Patricio (Santa Cruz, CA), and uncle Paul Thurston.

A tribute to her life follows.

Childhood

Jennifer was especially cherished for being the first grandchild of Bill and Lauretta Warlick (Asheville, NC) and the first great-grandchild of Lauretta's parents, Lauretta Callahan Keener and Samual H. Keener, Jr. (Knoxville, TN). She lived in the Chapel Hill, NC area before moving with her parents to Telluride, Colorado in 1978. She was a quiet, resourceful, self-directed, and intellectual child, developing an early love of reading, snow skiing and debating. Her parents divorced in 1982 after which time she alternated living with her father Peter and step-mother Franny and their two daughters in Colorado and California, and with her mother Mollie and her brother Callahan in Asheville, North Carolina.

Education

Jennifer was an excellent student, despite having to adapt often to new schools in California and North Carolina due to her rotational homes. Thanks to her adventurous spirit she spent her junior year in Ankara, Turkey, as a foreign exchange student. At age seventeen she moved to New York City where she got a GED and began taking college courses. She returned to Asheville to graduate from UNC-A with a B.A. in Liberal Arts focusing on journalism.

Professional Life

After college graduation, Jennifer returned to Telluride, Colorado where she worked as a reporter for the Daily Planet, a local newspaper, and for KOTO, the local public radio station. It was here that Jennifer became passionate about environmental issues, due in part to unmarked radioactive tailing sites around Telluride and her father's death in 1993. She returned to New York City, where she received a Master's degree in journalism from Columbia University. After graduating she was hired by a non-profit organization that specialized in global news about women's issues which they then disseminated to news outlets around the world. Jennifer worked as a reporter, writer and editor, fueled by her feminist beliefs and her commitment to deliver accurate and fact-based information to various media outlets.

After political changes brought an end to that company, Jennifer moved back to Colorado, settling in Paradox, where she devoted herself to professional environmental activism. For well over a decade Jennifer served as Executive Director for Information Network for Responsible Mining, Https://informcolorado.org, an organization fighting to ensure the protection of the natural environment and people from the impacts of modern and historical mining operations. She assisted countless communities and did so doggedly and with a keen knowledge of science, a sharp wit and warm compassion. She also took part in the award-winning documentary film, Uranium-Drive In (2013), which relates the emotional story of a small impoverished rural Colorado town at the center of a debate pitting a desperation for jobs and financial stability against environmental groups seeking to protect the environment, water quality and the health of humans. Jennifer worked with locals and other activists as a liaison between the two conflicting groups hoping to find common ground and some equitable solution. In the end, no easy answers were found. At present the saga of uranium mining and processing continues.

The Caregiver

The last several years of Jennifer's life were spent caregiving for elderly members of the Thurston family, first her grandfather, Richard Thurston, and more recently her great-aunt Ellen Thurston (Hudson, NY) who had dementia. Jennifer was a tireless companion for Ellen, sacrificing her own health to make her aunt's final years comfortable. It might be said that she was killed by her own kindness. She also cared for Ellen's two cats and for her own beloved cat JoJo whom she adopted as a stray kitten in Colorado. Joyfully, JoJo will return to Telluride with Jennifer's stepmother, Franny. Jennifer leaves behind an extensive library of books and a legacy of commitment to human rights, feminist issues, and environmental activism.

Bravo, Jennifer! Rest in Peace.

In lieu of flowers donations can be sent to informcolorado.org; Information Network for Responsible Mining (INFORM), P.O. Box 349, Lyons, CO 80540