Irene Ruth Dorothy Johnson Hamer passed away at home on 6 March 2020. Born in Boston, Massachusetts 29 June 1929 she was raised in a Swedish immigrant family with three brothers and two sisters. The youngest of her siblings, Irene instilled a deep appreciation of her Swedish heritage into all her children and maintained contact with her relatives in the old country. A rebel at heart, she liked to tell her three children how her friends and family labeled her “little toughie” because she stood up to those who tried to bully her sisters and friends. During the World War II her parents and two sisters journeyed across the country when her father, an electrician, took a job at the Bremerton Navy Yard in Washington State. While there she experienced an earthquake. After the war the family returned to Boston where Irene completed high school. After one year at New York University she returned to Boston University to complete her degree in sociology. She and her mother then spent the summer of 1951 in her parents’ native Sweden. Irene had the opportunity during this visit to travel to Europe with a Swedish cousin where she witnessed the early rebuilding of Germany, France and Austria after the destruction of World War II. Soon after she returned to Boston Irene met her future husband, John Hamer. In less than a year they were married. A series of new adventures began. She completed a Masters in social work at University of Pittsburg and before she graduated had her first child (Fritz). John began graduate school at Northwestern University while Irene worked as a therapist in Evanston. Before leaving Evanston in 1959 for John’s first tenured teaching job at Northern Michigan she and John had their second child (Linnea). Over the next three years they enjoyed the wilderness of the Upper Peninsula (UP) and Lake Superior while Irene worked as a social worker and John began his teaching career and research. Leaving the UP in 1962 for Ohio, two years later, after a third child (Richard) came into the family, the five packed up once again for a year in Ethiopia, studying the Sidama in the south of the country. While John undertook daily travels in rural Sidama to interview people, Irene raised three children and managed the household that included weekly laundry over an open fire, cooking meals and instructing Fritz and Linnea in their daily lessons. Irene also contributed to John’s research, interviewing Sidama women while John stayed home with the youngsters. When the family returned to the US in 1965 they had a new empathy for other people and cultures. Just two years later Irene and John decided to live in yet another country, this time Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Irene helped John co-write articles about women in the Sidama during this period and continued working as a social worker. After nine years in Canada, Irene and John moved back to the US, beginning another chapter in their lives, this time in Birmingham, Alabama. While John headed the anthropology department at UAB, Irene worked as a Therapist. In addition she volunteered to support women’s right to chose and protest the production of nuclear weapons. A few years before John retired she moved out of social work to take up her passion for books, working in the local library. In 1991 when both she and John had retired they chose Sewanee as their new home–the paradise on the mountain. Over the following years Irene wrote two young adult books based on her experiences in Ethiopia, was a long time member of the CCJP, and helped with documenting the history of Sewanee conducting oral interviews with elder members of the community. She also had a deep empathy for animals, especially dogs, having several as pets over many years while also contributing regularly to the local animal shelter and other animal causes. For many years Irene served as a regular volunteer at the Hospitality Shop and assisted with Sewanee’s July 4th celebrations. Since John passed away in 2016 Irene found life more difficult and it became harder for her to participate in her many community activities. But she remained steadfast in following the news of the day: railing against the iniquities in our social and political system. We now trust she is comfortable and out of pain. She is survived by her three children, Fritz, married to Jane Britton, (Columbia, SC), Linnea, married to Darren Lisse (Alexandria, Va.) And Richard married to Nese Sen (Soleiman, Turkey), four grandchildren, Madeleine (Westchester, NY) Anna (Charlotte, NC), Skylar (Alexandria, Va.) and Melek (Istanbul, Turkey). She was pre-deceased by her husband John and grandson, Cameron Lisse. Plans for a Memorial service are still pending. In lieu of flowers those interested can contribute to Animal Harbor, Winchester, Tn.
