Jacqueline (Jackie) Rae Risdal

Jacqueline (Jackie) Rae Risdal left this life to be with our Lord on June 30, 2025, in Issaquah, Washington at the age of 94. She passed away peacefully, surrounded by family.

Jackie was born to Esther Cecila Haarsager Bitzenhofer and Vernon Joseph Bitzenhofer on August 16, 1930, in Casper, Wyoming. “Bitz” to her friends, she attended Natrona County High School and kept busy with activities that included National Honor Society, Girl’s State, Triple Trio (alto), Band Majorettes, Junior Follies, Student Body and Big Sisters. After completing high school both Jackie and her sister Lois graduated from Saint Mark’s Hospital School of Nursing in Utah. Jackie moved to the Green Lake area of Seattle with her mom, Esther Bitzenhofer in 1951 and began working as a nurse in a doctor’s office.

Jackie met the love of her life, Ralph Risdal, at the Sunset Inn in Seattle. She danced with two different young suitors that night but only accepted a second date with Ralph. Jackie and Ralph were married on March 17, 1955, in Billings, Montana and began their life together in Torrence, California. In 1960 Jackie and Ralph, along with their two young children, Greg and Nancy, moved to Bellevue, Washington. In 1989, after raising their family in their first home in the Woodridge neighborhood of Bellevue, they built their dream home on the fairway of “3-North” in the Sahalee community in Sammamish. In 2008 Jackie and Ralph moved to Timber Ridge at Talus in Issaquah, where they socialized with old friends and made many new ones.

Jackie’s earlier hobbies included roller skating, biking, and skiing. Throughout most of her life she enjoyed cooking, playing bridge and golfing. She was an active member of the Sahalee Country Club and she and Ralph introduced golf to their grandchildren Aaron and Kevin. When Jackie wasn’t golfing or entertaining family and friends at their home, she and Ralph enjoyed traveling across the country and throughout the world with many of their friends.

Jackie was a long time and active member of Saint Andrews Lutheran Church. Attending worship every Sunday was a given. Many of her and Ralph’s closest friends were from the church bridge group. She taught Sunday School for a short while, rang in the handbell choir with her daughter Nancy, and enjoyed attending Daughters of Norway gatherings. She loved spending time with church sponsored refugee families. She volunteered with Interaction Transition, a program helping people recently released from prison transition back into society. As an older adult, she enjoyed conversing with students in the ESL program at Bellevue College, helping them practice their English skills. In her later years it gave her great joy to send financial support to non-profit groups.

Family was always a priority. Jackie loved attending and sometimes hosting reunions of both her and Ralph’s extended families. Around the holidays she would make lefse and Norwegian cookies. Her potato dumplings (with bacon grease poured on top) are a family favorite, as well as her teriyaki flank steak, potato salad and fettucine alfredo.

Jackie was a two-time cancer survivor but succumbed to it when it returned in her later years. We are so grateful for the compassionate care she received while in Briarwood at Timber Ridge. She was preceded in death by her sister Lois and is survived by her loving husband Ralph, children Greg Risdal (Gail) and Nancy Davis (Mark), grandsons Aaron Davis (Mary) and Kevin Davis (Brynn Olive) and great grandsons Luke and Daniel.

A Celebration of Life will be held Wednesday, September 17th, 2025, at 2:00pm at Saint Andrew’s Lutheran Church, 2650 148th Avenue, SE, Bellevue, WA 98008.

Donations in Jackie’s memory may be made to:

The Carter Center cartercenter.org

Southern Poverty Law Center splcenter.org

Breakthrough T1D (Formerly Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) breakthrought1d.org

Arthritis Foundation arthritis.org