Jeanette Cazedessus Ward, 54, died from complications due to cancer at St. Patrick’s Hospital in Missoula on Sunday, Jan. 29, 2017. She was surrounded by family.

A longtime resident of Sandpoint, Idaho, Jeanette was born on Dec. 20, 1962, in Baton Rouge, La., to Mary Hinrichs and Camille Cazedessus. She graduated from Marysville High School in California, and attended Louisiana State University from 1981 to 1984, where she was a member of the Kappa Delta sorority. She also attended Colorado Mountain College and North Idaho College. She pursued studies mainly in elementary education.

Jeanette loved the outdoors and worked as a ski instructor for children at Aspen Skiing Company from 1986 to 1994. She also taught skiing at Schweitzer Mountain Resort from 1994 to 1996. She began working at Coldwater Creek in 1997 and was promoted to assistant buyer, Northcounty Jewelry and Accessories, in 2000. After working at the Sandpoint Fire Department, Jeanette began working at Diedrich Roasters in 2012 and last served as their marketing manager.

In 1997, Jeanette married Jim Ward, becoming stepmother to his young children, Alec and Alyssa Ward. She said the happiest day of her life was when she gave birth to their son, Riley James Ward, in 1999. While Jeanette and Jim divorced in 2007, she is the proud grandmother to Alyssa’s daughter, Alice.

Always the adventurer, Jeanette loved to travel, visiting and working in Costa Rica (where her brother, Jean Paul Cazedessus, owns the Lake Arenal Hotel and Brewery), as well making trips to Mexico, Guatemala, Italy, France, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Always outgoing and sociable, to Jeanette no one was a stranger.

For many years, she attended the Rocky Mountain National Rendezvous where she won many muzzle loading and black powder shooting competitions. At these and other period reenactments of early Mountain Man days, she was lovingly known as Sunflower.

Jeanette will be remembered for her devoted love of family and her joyous spirit at work and at play but most of all for her radiant smile illuminating the lives of everyone blessed to know and love her.