Elizabeth Kaltreider

42, passed away on Saturday, January 29, near her home on Bainbridge Island, Washington.She was born on March 26, 1968 in Seattle and lived in Bellevue as a child, attending Three Points Elementary School through the fourth grade, when her parents, Gerald and Anne Dennon, moved to Bainbridge Island. There, she attended Ordway Elementary and Commodore Middle School, and began her secondary education at Bainbridge High School, before transferring to The Overlake School in Redmond.She went on to attend the University of Montana at Missoula, and indulging her love of the mountains and the outdoors, moved to Sun Valley, Idaho. Elizabeth and her dog were well-known and popular characters around Ketchum, often taking off together into the hills on sunny mornings and staying gone half the day. With her lifelong love of children, she served as a nanny for several prominent families, then launched an on-again, off-again career in real estate at Ketchum Realty.Elizabeth married Edward Sterling Kaltreider, then a Ketchum businessman, and the couple moved not long after back to Bainbridge Island, where they awaited the birth of their son, John Henry ("Jack") Kaltreider, in 1996.Elizabeth continued to dabble in real estate in Kitsap County over the years, working at Prudential Real Estate and the Kitsap County Board of Realtors, and also did volunteer work with Bainbridge seniors. But she devoted most of her time to raising her son, who is a freshman at Bainbridge High School and an accomplished baseball player, thanks in no small part to Elizabeth's spirited enthusiasm for baseball in general, and the Mariners in particular. Elizabeth's luminous smile, warm concern and infectious good humor were a familiar presence in the baseball bleachers, cafes and shops all over Bainbridge. Though she became a single parent and was often tied to home because of her son's schooling and sports demands, Elizabeth remained an adventurer at heart and never missed a chance to jump on a plane and explore some new frontier, from Paris and London to Moscow and South Africa, nearly always with Jack in tow. They were best friends. On rainy Sundays, after Jack's friends went home, the two of them would stretch out at their Fort Ward home with books, a stack of movies, and the rambunctious Cayman, an energetic and overweight Rhodesian ridgeback mix who was the bane of the neighborhood and a constant presence panting out the back window of Elizabeth's elegant red Audi. Jack survives her, as do her parents, the Dennons; brother, Daniel B. Dennon, and sister-in-law, Vika Dennon, of Bainbridge Island; nieces, Karina and Darya Dennon of Bainbridge Island; aunt, Virginia (Ginny) Hughes, of Poulsbo; and cousins William Vining Hughes, of Bellevue, Julie Anne Hughes, of Poulsbo, and Samuel Houston Hughes, of Bellevue. The memorial, which will be private, is being handled through Cook Family Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the Jack Kaltreider College Fund at Wells Fargo Bank, 1180 Hildebrand Lane, Bainbridge Island, WA 98110, 206-842-1860.