Judith Warner of rural Benton City, WA, died April 30, 2015 at age 74 in Kennewick, WA. Born in San Francisco, CA; Judith Rita Sauve was the only child of Gretchen Reiss, a hard-working middle-aged single mother with an eighth-grade education. Jude loved animals and children. Growing up in small city apartments, she had to be satisfied with caged birds, lizards and a rat.

  Young Miss Sauve learned to read and spell late, but did well in high school, and worked her way through college to a master’s degree at UC Davis where she met and married Ray Warner. She studied tropical ecology in Central America, earned a Ph.D. in zoology at Michigan State, studied desert ecology at Utah State, and worked briefly as a statistical consultant for the oil-shale exploration industry. She then rejoined Ray in Richland, WA, where she worked at Lamb-Weston Foods, and then became a letter carrier at the Richland Post Office.

Jude studied sculpture and painting at Columbia Basin College and Central Washington University. Following two years in Washington, DC, she and Ray returned home, and she earned an MS in psychology from WSU, then worked for and retired from Catholic Family & Child Service where she counseled couples and children.

Between careers, she battled diverse serious health problems; one was conquered by a kidney implant that freed her from dialysis for the last 13 years. She thoroughly enjoyed her Benton City area neighbors and life on 10 acres with pets and wildlife. Hikes in the Cascades and the desert were fun, as were trips to Europe, Hawaii, China & Tibet. 

She loved (and was clearly loved by) her neighbors, coworkers, Columbia Basin Racquet Club friends, and many others, especially health-care staff — most recently those wonderful folks at Trios.

Volunteer shifts at the Richland Library and Pet Over-Population Prevention in Benton City increased her friendships, as did sitting with Insight Meditation of the Mid-Columbia. She is survived by her husband Ray of Benton City and close friends Jose Rodriguez of Pasco and Jose and Maria Gonzalez of Benton City.

 Since fifth grade, she has loved to read. The brief great joy afforded by recent eye surgery led her to choose the Himalayan Cataract Project as her latest favorite charity. Her memory would be honored by a contribution to YOUR favorite charity, or by a yes vote for every school levy, or by being nice to store clerks (like her mother) and to poor strangers on the street.

     Her friends are invited to a simple celebration of her life on Saturday, May 16, 2015 at 2:00pm at Events at Sunset in Richland, WA.