Susan Ann (Steed) Jeffers, 60

Susan Jeffers, 60, passed away peacefully Monday, Jan. 31, 2005, at her home in Bigfork, after a long illness. She was a devoted and loving wife, mother, sister and grandmother.

Susan was born in Alhambra, Calif., to Allen Edwin Steed and Grace (Campbell) Steed on March 26, 1944. A longtime resident of California, she moved to Bigfork from Lucerne Valley, Calif., upon her husband's retirement in 2000.

Susan graduated from Alhambra High School in 1962. She worked as a computer keypunch operator for Great Western Savings and Loan for seven years before she married in 1967. She was a housewife and homemaker since 1968.

Susan was a Girl Scout leader in Covina, Calif., in 1974, and a member of the Crossroads Little League Board of Directors in Lucerne Valley from 1983 to 1989. She was on the San Bernardino County Parks and Recreation Advisory Committee in Lucerne Valley from 1984 to 1990. She was a parent volunteer in PTAs at every school her daughters attended in Covina, Chino and Lucerne Valley. She was instrumental in bringing a RIF (Reading is Fundamental) program to the Lucerne Valley school district in 1985. She helped the school district acquire BLM land for the new Lucerne Valley middle school in the mid-1980s.

She became a Court Appointed Special Advocate, Guardian At Large (CASA/GAL), in 1995, for the San Bernardino County Child Advocacy Program. In that program she helped guide abused children from broken families through the family court system, and she was a mentor and friend to those children she worked with.

Since retirement she loved crafting, going to auctions, reading, traveling, fishing, boating, watching TV and spending summers with her grandchildren.

Survivors include her husband of 37 years, Tom, of Bigfork; daughter, Cindy Lattin and grandchildren, Josh Lattin and Allee Lattin, of Lucerne Valley, Calif.; daughter, Debbie Sisk, and husband, Chris, of Columbia Falls; and her sister, Sandra Steed, of Las Vegas.

Her mother, Grace Steed, 89, preceded her in death in 1999.

There will be no services. Susan wanted only to be cremated and to have her ashes spread during a private family gathering.

Arrangements are under the direction of Buffalo Hills Funeral Home and Crematory in Kalispell.