Janelle Ann Benton
Janelle Ann Benton, aged 77, of Santa Fe, NM, escaped this mortal realm on Friday, December 17th, 2021, leaving behind 28 empty glass jars, 237 plastic bags, 88 twist ties, 3,028 pieces of scrap metal and multitude of other random items that may prove helpful in the event of a zombie apocalypse.
In her teens she planned to travel the world as a marine biologist – instead she ended up married at 17 and had two amazing, artistic, creative, strong willed daughters. Many gawked at her career as a jewelry designer and goldsmith. At 5’ tall, she was a tiny woman with giant green eyes, wearing high heels and a leather apron, holding a torch over a centrifugal machine. She could make anyone fall in love with her!
Most people thought she was crazy for racing cars in high school and she drove a GTO even after supposedly “settling down.” Janelle took apart her last vehicle, a Cadillac, in 1979 in an attempt to fix the “damn catalytic converter.” Any vehicles owned by her afterwards ended up in a junkyard because she had an uncanny knack for destroying their electrical devices. One mechanic told her, “Lady, you don’t need a mechanic, you need a priest.”
Once burdened by the 70’s vehicle debacles, Janelle took to the skies flying hot air balloons in the 80’s in Albuquerque, Santa Fe, Taos, Farmington, Durango and Pagosa Springs rallies. Her bumper sticker read “Champagne & Propane – Breakfast of Balloonists.” She once flew the Dalai Lama and instructed her crew, “no shenanigans today.” Her flight crew notoriously named, “Femme Fatale”
consisted only of female derelicts, inept of any culture. They were found at the landing site, pants down picking cholla cactus barbs out of one another’s behinds while a faint chuckle could be heard from his Holiness.
Her regrets were few but include landing a hot air balloon in the median of HWY 285, outside of Espanola during a low rider parade.
Janelle is survived by some people in the witness protection program, countless cousins, her daughters, Beverly Dawn Benton and Brandy Ann Benton (Raymond Finck); sister, Trevelyn Dee Sawyer; nieces, Pamela Dee Bone and Michelle Sawyer (John) and great niece, Hannah; Janelle was preceded in death by her parents, Roy Carson Lindley and Myra “Polly” Finis Cook Lindley.
In lieu of flowers, Janelle requested that one never votes for Donald Trump or any of his family members. Janelle also requested her ashes be scattered where she loved to fly hot air balloons and the prayer she always said once they landed safely after every flight… “May the winds welcome you with softness. May the sun bless you with its warm hands and set you gently back into the loving arms of
Mother Earth.”
A private scattering of the ashes will take place at a later time…
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