Renee Lovrien

“I am not worthy, I am not worthy!” Renee responded with characteristic humor when we approached her with the idea of honoring her in the Walk of the Heroines. We, her seven children, could not disagree more. Renee Lovrien is the epitome of the heroine, and we are so happy that she will be recognized for all she has accomplished.

Renee was born Nov 24, 1934 in St. Paul Minnesota. She attended nursing school, graduating with an RN in 1955. In 1956, she married a medical student and they embarked on a life together that included moving eight times across the country and out of the United States to support her husband’s career. Their first home was in a cottage on the grounds of a state psychiatric hospital, where they both worked in the infirmary that served not only the hospital but the prison down the street. Renee was active in the Nurse’s Association and part of a team that negotiated contracts. The first of Renee’s seven children was born at this time and lived with them in the cottage.

Renee and her husband and their first four children finally settled in Portland, Oregon, where three more children were born. Renee and her husband separated and then divorced, and she was faced with needing to financially support the five children she had at home as well as two in college. With typically resourceful resolve, Renee returned to psychiatric nursing after a twenty year absence. Again, she became involved in the Nurse’s Association and helped with contract negotiations. Renee left nursing to pursue a career as a licensed day care provider, where she touched the lives of 111 children and their families over the next eighteen years.  

Throughout her life, Renee has embraced the values of social justice, compassion, and unconditional acceptance. Her picture was published in the Oregonian when she led her family in the Thanksgiving tradition of serving the homeless in a soup kitchen. She took all seven of her children with her, including the youngest on her back in a backpack. Later, she continued this tradition by taking her grandchildren with her to serve a Thanksgiving meal to elderly indigent citizens. At the age of seventy-four, Renee volunteered for the Red Cross after Hurricane Katrina, traveling to New Orleans to manage a shelter that housed residents with psychiatric disabilities.

In “retirement,” Renee owns a successful online book business and continues in her role as the hub of family life for her children and their own families, all of whom live close by. She provides beautiful, warm, and sumptuous holiday gatherings that provide the basis for traditions and happy memories for us all. These celebrations and the gift of her example of a woman who has maintained a generous spirit, hope, and optimism in the face of adversity will inspire not only current, but future generations.

Written by her children