Jeanne Moreau Couzens

Jeanne Moreau Couzens was born in Redvers, Sask. on March 23, 1951 to french canadian parents Gerard and Florida Moreau. Jeanne passed away at home in Calgary on April 18. 2026. She had just recently celebrated her 75th birthday with a large family gathering.

Jeanne spent the first 5 years of her life on the family farm in Frys, Sask. The farm had belonged to her grandma and grandpa Moreau who had immigrated from Belgium. Jeanne’s father took over the family farm after his father passed away and grandma Moreau lived with them for part of each year. Jeanne grew up very close to gramma who was always her protector. Felicie was instrumental in developing Jeanne’s creativity as well as her love for walks in nature.

At 6 years old the family moved to Redvers, Sask. so the children could attend school year round. The story goes that when Jeanne arrived to grade 1 at an english elementary school the only english word she knew was “hockey”. She had a fabulous grade 1 teacher who took Jeanne under her wing and would let her stay in at recess to view the books in the class library. This started a love of reading and writing that would stay with her for the rest of her life. The teacher was such an inspiration to Jeanne that a dream was planted to one day become a teacher and to help her students as she had been helped.

Gary and Jeanne met and fell in love in Moose Jaw, Sask. They married July 3, 1970 with plans to move to Calgary and put each other through university. Jeanne, a newly minted mother, would graduate from the University of Calgary with a Bachelor of Education, Art major and would go on to be a Junior High art teacher and did she love her students.

In 1981 the teachers were on strike so Jeanne volunteered to work part time in a human resources business that Gary was a partner in. One year later she purchased 50% of the company from a departing partner and left teaching behind. Gary and Jeanne were life partners and business partners for the next 36 years. This partnership allowed them to share business and parenting duties as their second son soon arrived. Jeanne particularly enjoyed working with young immigrant women just starting in their work life and would career coach them through their tenure. Jeanne’s love for writing resurfaced at this time and one of her many books was “Job Smarts”.

Jeanne’s love for art continued throughout her life and if she wasn’t painting large colorful canvases you would see her at the kitchen island with one of her two sons or later with one or more of her 5 grand children painting, crafting or working with clay. Jeanne lived her life with enthusiasm and faith, wrote many books of inspiration – “Living Your Dreams”, “Happy Birthday Darling”, “ Every Day is a Good Day”, “ Prairie Dreams”. Although she took courses in editing and self publishing she hadn’t yet got around to publishing a full book. It may be Gary’s life work to sort through the many books and papers and publish them for future generations.

Jeanne is lovingly remembered by her husband of 56 years Gary, her son Dustin (Ashley) and grand children Chloe and Harper, her son Jonah (Kristen) and grand children Madison, Hudson and Brooklyn. She is also survived by her brother Raymond (Linda) of Medicine Hat and sister Colette (Gordon McGimpsey) of Calgary, sisters in laws Patsy (Jerry Wasylyk) of Summerland, BC and Sharon (Gary Crippen) of Saskatoon , SK and her many nieces and nephews that she loved to spend time with.

She was pre-deceased by her parents Gerard and Florida (Mailhiot) Moreau, her oldest brother Roger, her youngest brother Felix and his daughter Robyn and her inlaws Gord and Mable Couzens.

A celebration of Jeanne’s life will be held at a later date in Calgary.

In lieu of  flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Alzheimer's Society and/or Canadian Cancer Society