Jeanne Marie Lacoste Short age 80, passed away on May 4, 2012. The youngest of four children by Pierre and Mary Lacoste, Jeanne was born February 12, 1932 in the San Fernando Valley community of Studio City.

Jeanne was six when her mother died after a long illness. Her father eventually remarried, but Jeanne’s life was significantly altered by the loss of her mother. Jeanne attended elementary and junior high schools in the valley and, later, Catholic Girls High School in Los Angeles.

She would travel by streetcar to meet her father and ride home with him after he finished work, chatting with him about the day’s events. After graduating from high school, Jeanne did clerical work for a life insurance company. In 1950, Jeanne met John Short at a baseball game, and thus was the start of their long relationship. They were married in 1951 and would remain together for the next 55 years until John passed away in 2006.

In the spring of 1952, John received a job transfer to Portland, Oregon where their first two children were born-Mike in 1952 and Tom in 1954. They moved back to Southern California in 1955 and were living in an apartment in Van Nuys when a daughter, Kathy, was born in 1956. They bought their first home, in Sepulveda, a few months later. A fourth child, Steven, was born in 1957.

In 1963, the family moved to a new home in Los Alamitos where a fifth child, Janet, was born soon after. Jeanne’s love of family was evident in the active role she played in the lives of her five children. She volunteered as a bookkeeper at their elementary school, St Hedwig, and ferried her kids to their various afterschool activities.

In 1978, John and Jeanne moved again, this time to Irvine. With her children grown, Jeanne returned to the workforce, first as a bookkeeper, then later as a payroll specialist, for an eyewear company, Superior Optical.

In 1988, John and Jeanne retired to Canyon Lake. They purchased a recreational vehicle and spent their days traveling and visiting their children and grandchildren. In fact, after learning to use her Macintosh computer, Jeanne became known to her e-mail recipients as “RV Grandma.” I

n addition to her children, Jeanne leaves behind her sister Mary Lou and brother-in-law Tony; sons-in-law Gil and Scott; daughters-in-law Julie, Marie, and Maria; fifteen grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

We will miss her.

Services will be held Saturday, May 12, 2012 at 12pm at the Evans Brown Sun City Mortuary Chapel. Interment wil be private. Evans Brown Mortuary (951) 679-1114.

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