Tevina Benedict, 54

EUGENE, OR — Tevina Benedict, 54, was killed in a fall on Saturday, May 7, 2005, at the Strawberry Hill Turnout on the Oregon Coast north of Florence.

Born December 2, 1950, in Chicago, IL, she lived in Fallbrook, attending elementary and began high school there, where she was active on the debate team. She graduated from Poway High School in 1968. While a student there she was president of the Poway Youth Board, a youth group engaged in civic and social activities. She later attended California Western University, transferring to St. John’s College in Santa Fe.

Tevina continued as a passionate advocate for social justice in New Mexico, where she worked on the New Mexico Review, participated in the founding of La Clinica de la Gente in Santa Fe and worked for seven years on the alternative newspaper Seer’s Catalog in Albuquerque. After moving to Portland in 1980 her focus turned to healthcare where she served as staff on the Governor’s Commission of the Uninsured and the board of Neighborcare Health Clinic during the founding of that organization.

Later she worked at Oregon Health Decisions and staffed the group that created the first Oregon Advance Directive/living will, the basis for what is still in use in Oregon today. After moving to Eugene in 1989 she worked at the Oregon Department of Health Policy and with the Oregon Health Action Campaign to support and expand the founding of what is now the Oregon Health Plan. She later earned a master’s degree in public health policy from the University of Oregon.

As a lobbyist for the Women’s Rights Coalition in 1999, Tevina was instrumental in stopping tip credit legislation aimed at lowering the minimum wage for restaurant wait staff. In 2001 Tevina served as Director of the Lane County chapter of the Oregon Family Support Network, a nonprofit organization providing support to the families of children with mental and emotional disabilities. She dedicated her last few years to the struggle to provide adequate access to mental health services to those unable to afford them and to caring for the needs of her father.

She is preceded in death by her sisters Francesca Noreen and Nikki Alexandra. Her survivors include husband Dave Barta, daughter Erica Benedict-Barta and father Russell Benedict, all of Eugene; mother Julie Meilute Benedict of Escondido, CA; sisters Stephanie Benedict of Oceanside, CA, Barbara Benedict of Escondido, CA, and Marianna Bacilla of Poway, CA; foster brother Mel McClain of New York; aunt Paula Z. Weaver of Washington, DC; and uncle Stephen G. Benedict of New York.

She is a great-granddaughter of Charles K. Holmberg, editor of The Times, the first Escondido newspaper. It later merged to create the Times-Advocate, which then merged with the Oceanside Blade-Tribune to create the North County Times.

A community Celebration of Life will be held in Oregon on Saturday, May 28, at the Dorris Ranch Living History Farm in Springfield. Another Celebration will be held in Poway, CA, on June 11. Details are available at http://www.benedictnews.com.