Devoted mom, skier and nature lover dies
TIME: 05:31PM Wednesday February 29,2012
FROM：network.yardbarker.com
Leigh Cannon, a doting mother, graceful skier, talented artist and nature
devotee who found her church in Log Pile, passed away in her Telluride apartment
on Friday. She was 50.
The cause of death has yet to be determined,
according to San Miguel County Coroner Emil Sante, and is pending investigation
and autopsy.
Cannon landed in the box canyon in 1985, and in her nearly
27 years in town she raised two children, skied every inch of the mountain and
roamed the San Juan Mountains on foot. She was a natural athlete who was an ace
on the tennis court and golf course, a free spirit with a contagious laugh, an
artist who crafted pretty pieces of jewelry and a mom who showered her kids with
love, her family said.
“She sacrificed everything she could to show us
that she loved us,” said her son, John Cannon.She
was also an unabashed nature junkie whose awe for the outdoors never subsided.
Her children remember her stopping in her tracks to gaze at particularly
exquisite wildflowers, hunting mushrooms until dark near Lizard Head Pass and
skate skiing on the Valley Floor. She had enjoyed a long love affair with
Telluride, they say.
“She loved it. She said she would never leave here.
This was her home forever,” her daughter Lindsey Cannon said. “She thought the
mountains were the best escape.”
Cannon was born on March 9, 1961, to
Joan Flynn Rogers and the late Henry B. Rogers in Elmira, N.Y., a small
community located about four hours north of New York City.
Her brother,
Jim Rogers, remembers a girl who excelled at tennis and golf and loved the
outdoors.
“She always had animals … picking up turtles and frogs and
toads and rabbits,” he said.
“She was a rugged tomboy,” Lindsey
added.She graduated from Elmira Free Academy, attended Pine
Manor College and received her bachelor of arts degree from Elmira College,
where she studied business.
After graduation, Cannon chased her love of
skiing and the outdoors to Telluride. Her first job was working at the counter
at Baked In Telluride. It was while she was working there that she met her
former husband, Tim Cannon.
She also waitressed at several Telluride
restaurants, such as Floradora, Sofio’s and Siam. She worked for six years as a
real estate broker with Telluride Realty. And, most recently, she drove taxis
for Mountain Limo.
When she wasn’t working, she enjoyed cruising around
on her bike, hiking the Weibe, skiing Lift 9 and playing tennis.
Sooz
Austin was her friend and tennis partner. Austin said that while Cannon was a
great athlete, she was also a caring and unselfish friend.
“Leigh was a
really generous person,” she said, adding that Cannon was a friend who wouldn’t
hesitate to help her with her son or bring her soup when she was sick. “She was
a good lady. I’ll miss her.”
Lindsey and John remember her as a woman who
always wore a winter cap — no matter the season. Someone who loved to hike
through the aspens in the fall, who loved to get to the top of Ajax and who
would lead her kids to her mushroom stash in the summertime to pick a haul of
chanterelles. She was a bluntly honest woman who had a lifelong hunger for
learning, they say, and a devoted mom who always put a positive spin on
things.
She was also a talented artist who did watercolors, oil pastel
and jewelry making. When her kids were little, she would craft their Halloween
costumes and she always helped them will their school projects, they say. And
she was a mean cook whose blueberry pie and homemade manicotti was legendary in
the family.
“She was just such a talent,” Lindsey said.
When
summer turned to winter, they say, she found solace skiing laps on Mammoth, Log
Pile, Sully’s Remote and Apex Glade. She was fond of telling people that her
church was Log Pile, the gladed tree run under Lift 9.
Cannon battled
some demons in her life, but her kids say she always stayed
positive.
“She would always try to be positive even though she had a lot
of rough things in her life,” Lindsey said.
Cannon is survived by her
son, John Cannon of New York City, daughter Lindsey Cannon of Boulder, brother
James (Susan) Rogers of Elmira, N.Y., sister Marianne (David) Lubin of Elmira,
N.Y. and brother John (Elaine) Rogers of Elmira, N.Y.
A memorial Mass
will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday at St. Patrick’s Church. A reception will
follow at a location to be determined. A Mass will also be held in Elmira, N.Y.,
at a future date.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the
Telluride Academy or San Miguel Conservation Foundation.
