JoAnne Cisneros-West

JoAnne was born in the Hispanic village of Antonito in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, and was raised in Denver where she attended South High School. She was runner-up to Marilyn Van Derbur (later Miss America) in the Junior Miss America Pageant, and then homecoming queen in her senior year of high school, graduating in1955. After graduation JoAnne attended Denver University for one year where she met her husband, Phillip West in March of 1956. They were wedded in September 1956 and were married for 68 years.

JoAnne worked as a secretary to put Phillip through his undergraduate, medical school, internship, and residency in psychiatry. When Phillip started his private psychiatry practice in Albuquerque in 1974, JoAnne went back to school at the University of New Mexico. She earned her BA and then M.A. in counseling and a J.D. degree in law. JoAnne worked with a law firm until she and Phillip adopted her nephew James when he was 5 years old. She then became a student counselor working in the Albuquerque school system throughout James's school years. They moved to Farmington NM in 1990 where JoAnne was a high school counselor in the public school system, then later with K-4 children at a grade school in Beclabito, a village on the Navajo Nation. After she retired in 2012, they traveled the western U.S. for two years, then moved to Prescott Valley, Arizona in 2014 where they resided ever since.

She died on July 12, 2025, from complications of a hip fracture. JoAnne is survived by her husband, Phillip West, son James West (Brittney). grandsons Mason, Leven, and Dane, sister Barbara (Jack) Frost, nephew Mark and nieces Nichole and Danielle Frost in Bozeman, Montana, and brother Moses Cisneros in McMinnville, Oregon. A memorial service will be held at St. Andrew Presbyterian Church, 5301 Ponderosa Avenue NE in Albuquerque, at 2:00 pm on Saturday, July 6.