15 Aug 1953 – 1 Apr 2018
3rd-Great-Granddaughter of Philip Cardon and Martha Marie Tourn
2nd-Great-Granddaughter of Louis Philip Cardon and Susette Stalé
Great-Granddaughter of Joseph Samuel Cardon and Selenia Mesenile Walker
Granddaughter of Junius Welborn Cardon and Mae Whiting
Daughter of E. LaMarr Cardon and Leona Webb
Reneé Cardon Wallace was born on August 15, 1953, in Farmington, New Mexico to parents E. LaMarr Cardon and Leona Webb Cardon. The fourth of five children, she grew up with music, good work, and laughter alongside her siblings Kristine, Dennis, Jeanine, and Wayne. As a teenager, Reneé traveled to Europe and Asia with her parents and her brother, Wayne. During her senior year of high school, they lived in New Guinea, where LaMarr worked as a teacher for the United Nations. However, Reneé would spend most of her life in the American Southwest, making the “desert blossom as the rose” – literally, through her gardens (she always had one, however small) and figuratively, through the gentle, powerful influence of her goodness.
As a mother and grandmother, Reneé brought her joyful heart, her creativity, her love of books, sewing, gardening and the arts, her amazing patience, her sweet disposition, and her indomitable spirit to each member of her family. She also shared these qualities with many people through her work as a librarian, using her talents to plan wonderful community events that celebrated literature and reading. Moreover, Reneé was a second mother to her students through her work as a Montessori Teacher and her callings in the Primary and Nursery at church. In the music, movies, and dance that delighted her, in every beautiful garden, in every favorite recipe, in every funny family story, in every quiet recollection of her care and tenderness, we will remember her with love.
Reneé is survived by William Wallace, Kathleen Snuffer, Tamara Wallace Ramirez, Kevin Wallace, Lauren Rhoades, Saige Demian, Zane Wallace, Genevieve Ramirez, and Aurelia Ramirez