Jean was the first Weis & Hickman fan; she was the one who championed us to write the novels when no one else thought we could do it. She stood up for us and went to bat with the TSR brass to make sure we were the ones who wrote the novels. Without her, none of what followed would have happened.
Beyond that, she was a wonderful woman and a good friend. I still remember her reading a ‘letter’ at a celebration lunch we held at a hotel downtown when the first novel came out. It was a joke she had made about a ‘Dragonlance Movie’ for us as something of a roast but after she started she was worried that we were taking it seriously. I remember that now because that single instance reminds me so much both of her playfulness and her genuine concern for others.
Partings are sorrowful but we can take some measure of comfort knowing that the work she did — and the lives that she touched — continue after her. She touched our words so that the fire could show through the smoke, and has in her wonderful way touched millions of others as well.
That is a legacy with we should remember with warm thanks and fondest memories.
