Lenit Mary Cheney

Our beautiful mother passed from her temporary life on this earth, into the arms of our Heavenly Father this past Good Friday morning. Our Father in heaven could not have selected a more perfect earthly mother, wife, daughter, grandmother, sister, and aunt for our family. We have been truly blessed. She carried her cross into this Good Friday with great strength and determination, finally releasing it, so Jesus could take her hand and help her with those last few steps. Finally, free. Our mom lived her life to the fullest, always putting her husband and children first, after God, which ordered things perfectly. She was a devoted wife and mother, but also a tireless workmate, both in the home, and also helping manage the orchards that she and dad ran together. An avid seamstress, she made all of the dresses for her five daughters for Easter, Christmas, weddings, and special occasions, along with the needed accessories. If you found a favorite dress for graduation, a dance, or wedding, she would find or make a pattern so that you could have the dress that you had chosen. As well as making wedding gowns for her five daughters, she made all of the bridesmaids' and flower girls' dresses and her own dresses. When we were younger, we had a group called the Cheney Sisters and would sing at different events in and around the Wenatchee Valley. Mom designed and made all of our dresses for those events, five daughters, five to six events a year, 25 to 30 new dresses, with accessories. When our children and grandchildren were born she also made outfits for them, and their dolls. She was a scout troop leader/den mother for her son, Mike, and for all of her daughters. When her children moved from scouts into 4-H, she was there right along with them, helping them to win blue ribbons at the fair. She taught her daughters her love for sewing. One year when there was several feet of snow and having only made it a short distance from our house in the car, she came back and grabbed a large sled to take to town with her so she could get our Christmas presents and bring them home. She walked three miles in deep snow with the sled empty on the way to town, but loaded on the trip back, a six to seven mile hike, just so we could have presents on Christmas morning. She sang silly songs that delighted all who heard them, and wrote beautiful and sometimes silly poetry and stories. A long-time member of the St. Joseph Church community, she helped with spaghetti feeds, dances, CYO, and belonged to the St. Francis Women's Guild and sang with her five daughters in the Church choir. When they moved from St. Josephs to Holy Apostles in East Wenatchee, she served as a Eucharistic minister, but eventually came back to her home church, when they built a larger church that could contain her growing family. She loved to travel, having visited nearly every state in the U.S., and most of the Canadian provinces, traveling to Europe, camping, and she loved to hike, doing so up into her 70's, until her knee and hip joints failed her. She was preceded in death by her husband of 67 years and the love of her life, Troy LeVerne Cheney; and daughter, Cynthia. Lenit is survived by five children: Michael Cheney and Barbara Belt both of Cortez, CO; Marilynn Jaso (Tom) of Houston, TX; Pam Prey of Kennewick, WA, and Sandra Ordway (Cary) of Chelan, WA; along with 14 grandchildren; 38 great-grandchildren; and four great-great-grandchildren; and a second mom to many of our friends and family members. Love you forever, Mom. Thank you for being our Mommy, Mike, Barb, Marilynn, Pam, Sandra, and Cindy (deceased). A Memorial Mass and Rosary will be announced at a later date. Arrangements are by Chapel of the Valley, Wenatchee, WA.

Lenit Mary Cheney

October 1, 1927 - April 10, 2020