Tribal member Vanessa Chavez walks on

Vanessa Yanira Chavez

Oct. 29, 1991 - March 31, 2012

Tribal member Vanessa Yanira Chavez, 20, lost her battle with leukemia on March 31, 2012, at her home in McMinnville.

"Our Nessa" was born Oct. 29, 1991, in Hillsboro, Ore. Vanessa always had a smile for people and a large love of life. She loved bright colors and would often be seen wearing her handmade tie-dyed T-shirts.

When she learned to drive she would "mob around" with a car full of her friends. Summer was her favorite season, and she never wore shoes; always "flip-flops." She couldn't wait to get her flip-flop tan. She loved to swim and would say, "Let's go! Get into the car."

Vanessa was a very generous person and helped people whenever she could. She often babysat her nieces and nephews and made friends wherever she went, especially at Doernbecher's Children's Hospital. Her mother always said that with Vanessa being such a free spirit, she should have been born in the 1960s. Vanessa was a fighter and often said, "I just don't want you to think I am a quitter," and she never was.

She is survived by her parents, Maximiliano Chavez-Gaona and Tammy Chavez; sisters, Andrea (Roy) Pacheco, Veronica (Jose) Montano and Hermila Chavez; grandmothers, Hermila Gaona Cervantes, Betty Leinbach and Betty Dick; her favorite uncle, Allan L. Rose; brother, Andrew Hecht; and nieces and nephews, Ezra, Azen, Izika and Onahzay Pacheco, Madalynn and Meleena Montano and Jayden LaBonte. She also is survived by her godparents Claude and Jody Briggs and many aunts, uncles and cousins.

Services will be held at 11 a.m. Friday, April 6, at the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde cemetery in Grand Ronde.

Adamson's Sheridan Funeral Home Directors is handling the arrangements.