Amanda Jackson Stoess

Amanda Jackson Stoess of Knoxville died March 27. Her 35 years were packed with love, sports, friends, teaching, and volunteering. The first home of Amanda, as she was known in her early life, was Lake Wylie, North Carolina, where shore, dock, and the lake became her world at birth on May 24, 1984. It didn't take her long to help her mom, Mary Cartwright, and dad, Bill Stoess, plant alternating pink and white begonias outside her bedroom window. The family ski boat frequently substituted as crib and playpen, leading to sure-footed, kneeboarding toddlerhood. When on dry land, Amanda was her mom's career sidekick, learning more about nuclear power than any child should know. But she was unquestionably a daddy's girl. The bond began in the delivery room, where the physician noted the physical resemblance between father and daughter, and said he'd be the only person who could swear who her mother was. From singing "We ain't got a barrel of money" on Saturday morning truck adventures to texting dozens of times a day, driving matching vehicles, wearing matching pajamas, and working together, father and daughter adored one another. No dad ever had a better daughter. On her tenth birthday, by then living in Knoxville on the Tennessee River, Amanda received her first slalom ski—and a resulting black eye. Not just water-oriented, she lettered in five sports at the Webb School of Knoxville and swam again at Centre College in Kentucky. Most recently, CrossFit and bocce ball piqued her interest. Her view of friendship evolved over time. On her initial school bus ride to kindergarten, she wore a plastic headband bedazzled with sequins. “I wore my tiara and spoke to no one,” she reported to her parents. By her teen and adult years, however, this good daughter had many friends. Jackson was always the one that remembered everything from birthdays to favorite foods or anything that she knew was important to someone. She loved to take care of her friends. Always a child of finer tastes, Amanda requested a leg of lamb feast to celebrate her third birthday and invited two septuagenarian friends. While attending the University of Tennessee and graduating cum laude, she honed her skills on the apron side of Holly Hambright. In elementary school, she began volunteering at the church soup kitchen, and just two weeks ago, set up Amazon donation lists to fulfill needs for guests of the soup kitchen. For more than a year after Hurricane Katrina, she was part of the church’s Team Bedwell’s formidable reconstruction work in Southern Mississippi. In 1991, a small intruder named Sam invaded the household, usurping her long-held only-child status. After a sufficient period of torment, she opened her big heart to envelop Sam, spoiling him when he was young with Mountain Dew slushies and later with a trip to Las Vegas to mark his twenty-first birthday. When she pinned the wings on his U.S. Navy uniform, Jackson (going by her middle name now) was the proudest person in the world. In her most recent job as a yearbook representative, Jackson unleashed her creative and technological skills in classrooms from Warburg to Webb, helping students develop keepsakes that will bear their memories and Jackson's expertise forever. Hilarious on her own, Jackson's humor reached its zenith when teamed with Sam. She stood by his side as best person in his October 2019 wedding to Lindsey Reprogle, and she had the groomsmen in stitches and giggles. Though Jackson has left us, the light of her love, intelligence, humor, and compassion will shine forever among her family and friends. Rev. Jan Buxton Wade will officiate a private graveside service at Highland Memorial Cemetery on Saturday, April 4. A Piper will serenade Jackson's neighbors while the family privately lays her to rest. Jackson’s life will then be publicly celebrated at a later date at Church Street United Methodist Church. In lieu of flowers, Jackson’s family welcomes donations to Webb School of Knoxville, 9800 Webb School Lane, Knoxville 37923, or Church Street United Methodist Church Soup Kitchen, PO Box 1303, Knoxville 37901.

Tributes

Amanda Jackson Stoess

May 24, 1984 - March 27, 2020