Barbara Jean Field

Jeanne was born on March 21, 1943, in Alton, Illinois to parents Arthur and Lucille Towell. When she was a toddler, the family moved to Houston, and a few years later, to Concord, California, where she would spend most of her adolescence. There, she built a tight social circle of friends, spanning from elementary into high school.

Jeanne was accepted to UC Berkeley but found it too big for her liking and transferred to a junior college. While there, she took a job at a flight school in Concord, where she met her future husband, David Field. Dave was learning to fly and kept his airplane in the school’s hangar. Jeanne saw this handsome pilot from a distance, and then hung around the pilots’ lounge hoping to meet him. Once their paths crossed, Dave asked her on a date, and the stars aligned. They married on August 28, 1965. Jeanne and Dave started their life together in Danville, California, where they lived on a small farm with a couple of horses. Opportunities to ride and care for the horses led to Jeanne’s life-long love of riding.

Jeanne graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in history. Her minor was in education, which led to an interest in teaching students with special needs. Dedicated to ensuring everyone had opportunities to learn, Jeanne worked in schools for several years before Dave’s job took them to Denver, where in 1973, their son Kevin was born. Two years later, the family moved again, to Washington state. Jeanne and Dave chose to settle in Bellevue, partially because Jeanne loved the local schooling options for Kevin. They ended up staying there for 50 years. Led by Jeanne, the family got to know every bit of the Pacific Northwest during that time, taking lots of family road trips around Puget Sound in their station wagon, to towns large and small.

The Field home in Bellevue was a warm and welcoming one. Jeanne loved feeding family, friends, and neighbors, and was known for her baking, from a dozen varieties of Christmas cookies to her cakes… especially her cakes. She was legendary for her creations, making unique cakes for Kevin’s and neighborhood kids’ birthday parties. She also loved movies and inspired that love in Kevin, taking him on weekends to revival screenings of classic movies like “The Adventures of Robin Hood” and “National Velvet” and encouraged his love of the original “Star Wars” trilogy. Jeanne was also an animal lover, and the family always had a dog, cat, or both at any given time.

Most of all, Jeanne was a huge sports fan, obsessively following the Seattle-area pro teams, and taking Kevin to experience Sonics, Seahawks, and Mariners games in person. When Kevin enrolled at the University of Washington, her fandom went into overdrive, and Jeanne became a huge Husky football and basketball fan. She hardly ever missed a UW home game, and she even followed the team to Pasadena for a couple of Rose Bowl matches. Years later, when she wasn’t able to go herself, she sent Dave and Kevin to New York to watch the Seahawks win the Super Bowl in 2014. Even in her last days, she was comforted by watching games on television.

Jeanne leaves behind her beloved husband of 61 years, David, her son Kevin, daughter-in-law Erin, grandchildren Declan and Julia, and brother James. She is also grieved by her extended family and many friends in Washington, Oregon, Missouri, and California. She was preceded in death by her parents Arthur and Lucille.

The memorial service will be held on Saturday, October 24, 2026, at Sunset Hills Memorial Park & Funeral Home, 1575 145th Place SE, Bellevue, WA 98007.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to your local branch of the Humane Society or to the Seattle Weavers Guild.