Cale Kenney, former Fraser Valley resident, writer, and winter Paralympian, died on Jan. 7 at her home in Beverly, Massachusetts after a period of challenging health. Kenney lived in the Fraser Valley from 1977 to 1983. She was a vibrant luminous presence, unforgettable to all who met her and knew.

Injured in a motorcycle accident while a freshman at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Kenney began skiing in 1973 through the adaptive ski program at Haystack Mountain in southern Vermont. She was a three-track skier, skiing with one ski and outriggers, who progressed to ski racing in her third winter season.

Kenney was New England women’s three-track champion in 1975 and 1976. Ready for new challenges, she moved to Grand County in 1977 to train with the then-fledgling U.S. Paralympic Ski Team and compete in the 1980 Geilo Norway Paralympics, where she had the best times of all the U.S. women competing that year. Shecontinued to race until 1983 when she retired after a knee injury.

Throughout her years in Grand County, Kenney worked for the Winter Park Manifest, the weekly newspaper owned, published and edited by Virginia Cornell. Mentored by Cornell, she wrote about skiing, both mainstream and adaptive, local current events, Grand County history, notable residents, disability and more.

The Manifest led to other writing opportunities including Alpenglow magazine, Powder Magazine and Ski Magazine. Her interviewing skills were beautifully tuned, as was her ear for dialogue, though those early writing opportunities.

After her time in Grand County, Kenney moved to the Front Range and obtained her Master’s in Creative Writing from Colorado State University. She then taught literature and writing at the college level and continued her own writing even as she mentored others. In the mid-90’s she started up a literary zine “Howlings: Wild Women of the West”, a quarterly that showcased 135 western women writers.

Kenney’s book “Have Crutch will Travel: The Adventures of a Modern Day Calamity Jane,” published in 2002, is a memoir that grew out of that writing. It is, as Virginia Cornell said, “A picaresque tale of her travels, her conquest of the ski slopes, her medical challenges, and her determination to outfox pain. It’s witty and wise, and one of the most inspiring stories you’ll ever read.”

Kenney spent her later decades in Beverly surrounded by extended family and friends. Her celebration of life, held in Revere on a very snowy Feb. 7, was a wonderful send-off for a truly uncommon woman. Donations in Kenney’s honor can be made to National Sports Center for the Disabled at NSCD.org.