Jeanne Hill La Marca, former educator and lifelong resident of Lordsburg, passed away Wednesday, March 12, 2014, at University Medical Center in Tucson, AZ, in the presence of family. She was 66.

Visitation will be Wednesday afternoon, March 19, 2014 from 2 to 4 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. A celebration of her life will follow at 4:30 at Dugan-Tarango Middle School. Interment will follow at Mt. View Cemetery.

Jeanne was a devoted wife and mother, a writer and a photographer, and an active member of her church. She was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, on August 5, 1947, to Allen “Hookie” Hill and June Hatch Hill, both lifelong residents of Lordsburg. She graduated from Lordsburg High School in 1965 and earned her bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah, in 1970. While attending BYU in 1969, she married Fred La Marca. After graduation, the couple returned to Lordsburg, where Jeanne accepted a job as the city’s first kindergarten teacher and Fred became a teacher and longtime middle-school principal. In 1973, Jeanne and Fred moved to Gualala, California, where their first child, Sundi, was born. After returning to Lordsburg in 1976, they had three more children, Jonathan, Scott and Benjamin, all of whom graduated from Lordsburg High School. Jeanne remained a contributing member of the community for the remainder of her life. Jeanne earned two master’s degrees from Western New Mexico University in Silver City, one in English in 1993 and the other in Education in 1996. She was widely respected for her writing and editing abilities, her impeccable conversational skills, her effective teaching style, and her reverence for local history and genealogy. She was an active member of her community, revered for her kindness, her warmth, and her dedication to her family. She was also an avid photographer, documenting the lives of her friends and family through nearly 50,000 photographs over the years, many of which appeared in The Hidalgo County Herald and, previously, The Lordsburg Liberal. She was an accomplished journalist, serving for more than a decade on the staff of both papers. She was also a great cook, frequently feeding neighborhood kids and offering brownies to most of the residents of Hidalgo County. While not always punctual, Jeanne was always present and was entirely selfless. She will be remembered as a vibrant and positive member of her community who loved her husband and children and who enriched the lives of everyone she knew. She was truly a part of everyone’s family, and the loss of such a remarkable woman continues to touch countless people who knew and loved her.

She is survived by her husband, Fred, her parents, Allen and June, and her five children and eight grandchildren: Steve La Marca, his wife Renee, and their daughter Stephanie, of Antioch, CA; Sundi (La Marca) Hendrix, her husband Rusty, and their three children, Ty, McKenna, and Eli, of Safford, Arizona; Jonathan La Marca, his wife Selene, and their son Jayden (and another on the way), of Las Cruces, NM; Scott La Marca, his wife Renee, and their daughter Allie, of Animas, NM, as well as Scott’s children, Tray and Kailie, of George West, Texas; and son Benjamin La Marca, of Los Angeles.