Recent Obituaries

Josie Marie Regan lived out loud. She was a large personality, immensely gregarious, a force of life. Unabashedly boisterous, she also knitted together—through love, humor and insight—an always-expanding circle of family and friends. Josie died unexpectedly on September 28 after a seizure.

Josie’s parents early recognized that this girl’s exuberance needed focus and containment. They supported her love of sports and competition. On soccer and basketball teams, she demonstrated skills that foreshadowed her entire life: She knew what she wanted, organized mates toward those ends, and went for it, all out. Josie got to the hoop or goal more frequently than most, either through finesse or force of personality. She was named Seattle Times Player of the Week in basketball, in honor of notching an astounding 50 points in one game. Josie played soccer from an early age, adding basketball, softball, and water polo through the years into high school. She competed on her college swim team at Manhattan College.

After focusing her early professional career on campaigns for elective office and work with unions, she found her professional home in 2021 at the Port of Seattle’s Diversity in Contracting Program.

The center of Josie’s life was her family. She loved her niece Zaria, the light of her life, like her own child. They became best buddies. She was TT (short for Auntie) to Zaria, and later to Brynn and Wesley. In Josie’s early twenties, amidst the awkwardness of a newly-blended family, she quickly embraced her new sister and brother-in-law and they became dear to each other.

Josie had ways of balancing her brash external energy. She would discover that a Seattle summer day was turning special, take a PTO day and head to the beach. She was happier if friends could join but also happy with a book. She was a big reader. Her favorite book was “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe. The act of drawing soothed her. She loved music of all kinds. She loved shopping. She loved her dog, Jack.

Josie was proud to know that she was an adopted child, proud that she also had a second family, her birth family. It was a big part of her identity. For her high school Senior Project Josie chose finding her birth family, and she did just that. In recent years she visited often with her birth family, including two young nieces. She had a special relationship with her birth grandfather, who became a real connection to her Nez Perce heritage.

She is survived by her mother, Deborah Bowler, father James (Rod) Regan, sister Odessa, niece Zaria, stepmother Margaret, stepsister Sydney, brother-in-law Sean, niece Brynn and nephew Wesley. Josie is also survived by her birth mother Julie and members of her birth family.

Donations in memory of Josie can be made to Amara, at amarafamily.org.