Former Rio Rancho city councilor Joan Kellogg died Wednesday morning after losing a yearlong battle with lung cancer.

"Mrs. Involvement," as Sandoval County Commissioner David Bency called her, "was one of the kindest people I've met."

Former city councilor and current Sandoval County Commissioner Jack Thomas said Kellogg's passing is a loss for the city. "Joan was a friend of mine and had been involved in Rio Rancho and the affairs of Rio Rancho since 1975. I met her in 1977; we were on the council together and she definitely was a supporter of senior affairs," Thomas said. "I was elected the same year she was and we had great rapport on the council.

Kellogg, 65, defeated incumbent Arturo Boniello for the District 5 seat in March of 1998. A poll in The Observer showed her marginally ahead of Boniello, 32.2 to 27.1 percent, although the other 40 percent was undecided in late February.

She withstood a recall attempt during her term, and then was defeated by a mere 18 votes by Boniello in 2002.

When she was running for city council, she answered in a questionnaire that her biggest weakness "is being a perfectionist, which is also my greatest strength. I compensate by practicing patience."

She is a former secretary to the national president of the Grand Lodge Fraternal Order of Police, and had been educated at the Katherine Gibbs Secretarial School in New York, after studying business administration at Beaver College.

She was appointed by former governors Bruce King and the Gary Johnson to serve on the New Mexico CrimeStoppers Commission, for which she was a vice chair.

Kellogg's first foray in politics didn't work out: She ran unsuccessfully for Sandoval County Clerk in 1992. She served a year (1998-99) as president of the Rio Rancho Chamber of Commerce.

She withstood a recall attempt during her four-year term, and then was defeated by Boniello by 18 votes in her bid for re-election in 2002.

Thomas said the two shared ideologies.

"Two areas I remember, because they were strong suits for me: pay raises for our employees and doing things that seniors needed done." he said. ...

Bency said he was "shocked" to read in a local newspaper that she had died Wednesday.

"I didn't know she was that ill," he said. "She was involved in everything possible, from schools to seniors to city council. She worked with Sandoval County. She was Mrs. Involvement - and one of the kindest people I've met.

"I'm still in shock by it - I just can't believe it," Bency said. "I sat next to her for four years on the city council. She was just a sweet person, period."

Kellogg was more than an advocate for the City of Vision; she was important in county affairs, too.

"She was senior center manager -- she saw the operations of all the county senior centers," said county spokesman Gayland Bryant, adding that she served in that capacity from October 2001 to March 5, 2006, when she resigned. At the time of her death, she was a part of the Kellogg Agency, a Rio Rancho business involved in real estate and property management, with her son, daughters and husband.

"Joan always had a smile on her face and a deep desire to help people and was very active in Sandoval County for a long, long time and will be greatly missed," Bryant said.

"She was a lovely lady and a good councilor, too," said Lonnie Clayton, who served on the council from 2002-06.

"She was very proud of living in Rio Rancho and loved having her (four) grandkids growing up here," her daughter, Courtney Warnock, said. "She loved working with the seniors and always helping out when she could."

Warnock said her mother's unusual Christmas tree will go up as usual in two months.

"She collected mice and had a huge mouse tree at Christmas time," she said. "Over the years it went from a two-foot tree to a seven-foot tree."

Kellogg's husband Fred, who survives her, was a Rio Rancho city councilor in the 1980s.

She is also survived by two daughters, Warnock and Jennifer Kellogg, one son, Justin Kellogg; her mother, Lilli Kessel; plus four grandchildren and a brother.