A steady hand, laser focus and a strong competitive spirit helped Jeanie Hall with 17 national archery championships.
“Mom was pretty special with a bow in her hand,” said her son, Mel, who also won multiple national championships.
Jeanie Hall, a lifelong Clark County resident, died March 12 at the age of 74.
A celebration of life in her honor will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Washington Grange, 7701 N.W. Ward Rd.
In addition to her 17 age-group national titles, Hall’s many championships included victories at world championships, the Senior Olympics and at many state tournaments.
In a 2001 story about her 10th national title, Hall credited “orneriness and perseverance” for her success.
Her husband, Max, taught Jeanie to shoot in 1972 and the couple owned and operated Archery World in Vancouver for many years before selling the business in 1999.
Mel Hall, who also won multiple national championships, said traveling to national competitions with his mother was always a thrill.
His fondest memory is from the mid-1980s when Mel and Jeanie both won gold medals on the same day at a National Field Archery Association championship in Watkins Glenn, N.Y.
“I know it was my most special (championship), being there with mom,” Mel Hall said. “Having flown across the United States and both of us winning was really exciting.”
Another event that stands out in Mel’s memory is of a fun event the day before another national tournament. Mother and son teamed up to win a competition that required teams to be the first to pop all the balloons on a downrange target. Mel was shooting a bow with a mechanized release, while Jeanie used a basic finger-release bow.
“Early on she was hitting the balloons and I was missing,” Mel recalled. “Mom let me know that she had handled it out there on the range there.”
