Fifteen-year LPGA veteran and former Lamar golf All-American Dawn Coe-Jones died Saturday after a battle with bone cancer. She was 56.

Golfweek magazine reported Coe-Jones’ death Saturday. Lamar University made an announcement Sunday.

Coe-Jones, a native of Campbell River, British Columbia, was named first-team All-America at Lamar in 1983 and won the Canadian Amateur that year. She then competed in the LPGA Tour from 1984-2008, winning three times and earning more than $3 million.

A tournament in Tampa, Fla., that raises money for the Amandalee Fund at Moffitt Cancer Center and junior tournament at Lake March Meadows Golf Club in British Columbia are named in her honor.

“I was deeply and abruptly saddened to hear the news about Dawn,” LU women’s golf coach Jessica Steward said. “Not because she was such a prominent alumna, but because she was a tremendous person. She seems to have touched everyone she met, and we are forever grateful for the mark she left on our women’s golf program.”

Coe-Jones was diagnosed in March with dedifferentiated chondrosarcoma, an aggressive bone cancer, which required full knee and partial tibia replacement surgery, the Legends Tour said. Lamar said in a release Coe-Jones was “known for her ever-present smile, quick-witted zingers and giving spirit.”

“We called her ‘The Chief,’” retired LPGA player Gail Graham said. The fellow Canadian met Coe-Jones her freshman year at Lamar and called her a close friend and reluctant leader.

“She didn’t want to be the spokesperson, but she let us know what she wanted to do,” Graham added.

Coe-Jones won the 1992 Women’s Kemper Open and 1994 HealthSouth Palm Beach Classic each by one stroke and the 1995 Chrysler-Plymouth Tournament of Champions by six strokes over Beth Daniel.

The Dawn Coe-Jones Golf Classic in Tampa was renamed in her honor in October when she and 26 Legends Tour players brought teams with them to participate (and pay to play), Golfweek reported. The tournament doubled from its normal size when Australian Wendy Doolan brought five foursomes and raised a record $51,000.

Golfweek added the tournament gained interest when photos from it went online. An idea of a college alumni competition was launched, and Graham reached out to players who competed against Coe-Jones at Lamar and set up an event to raise $33,000 in additional money from 32 college teams.

Coe-Jones was inducted into the LU Athletics Department Hall of Honor in 1995 and the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame in 2003.

She is survived by husband James Edward Jones and son, Jimmy Jones, 21, who plays at the University of South Florida in Tampa, where the family makes their home. Sunday is the 24^th anniversary of James and Dawn’s wedding, according to Golfweek.

Jimmy Jones recently transferred from Florida Southern, which reached the semifinals of the NCAA Division II championship last spring, Golfweek reported.

Memorial service and funeral arrangements are pending.

I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews