Obituaries

Duane Valencia
Nov 8, 2011
Obituary for Duane S. Valencia Duane Solomon Valencia, 45, died Tuesday, November 8, 2011, at his home in Ignacio, Colo. A Memorial Service will be at 10 a.m. Monday, November 14, 2011, at St. Ignatius Catholic Church. Cremation will occur at Hood Mortuary Crematory in Durango. Mr. Valencia was born November 14, 1965, in Garden Grove, Calif., the son of...

Mary Albright
Nov 8, 2011
Obituary for Mary Ellen Albright Durango resident Mary Ellen Albright died of cancer Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2011, at her home. She was 55. Ms. Albright was born to Charles and Mary Ellen Albright on March 16, 1956, in Baltimore. She was the youngest of seven children and the only girl. She was first educated as a registered nurse and worked...

Kitt Harman
Nov 4, 2011
Obituary for Kitt S. Harman Durango resident Kitt Stone Harman died Friday, Nov. 4, 2011, in Durango. He was 26. Mr. Harman was born to Jimi Lee and Marita Jean Harman on Oct. 21, 1985. He was the last baby born at Community Hospital in Durango. He graduated from Durango High School in 2006 and from Wyoming Technical Institute in...

Robert Freeman
Nov 1, 2011
Obituary for Robert Allen "Rob" Freeman La Plata County resident Rob Freeman died on November 1, 2011 after a courageous battle against a rare and aggressive cancer called merkel cell carcinoma. He was 66 years old. He was born in Washington, DC on December 15, 1944, the eldest of three sons of C.A. Freeman and Mary Halstead. He grew up...

Ruben Garcia
Nov 1, 2011
Obituary for Ruben Eddie Garcia Ruben Eddie Garcia, 63, died Thursday, October 27, 2011 at Mercy Medical Center in Durango, Colorado. He was born in Bayfield, Colorado on January 31, 1948 to Ruben and Irene Garcia. He lived in Bayfield most of his life, but recently moved to the Senior Center in Ignacio where he was closer to his daughters...

Jerry Ulibarri
Oct 27, 2011
Obituary for Jerry Leon Ulibarri Jerry Leon Ulibarri, 62, died Thursday, October 27, 2011 at San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington, New Mexico. A Funeral Service will be Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 11:00 A.M. at Pine River Valley Baptist Church. Pastor David McCaw of Pine River Valley Baptist Church will be officiating. Burial will occur at Pine River...

Genevieve Phelps
Oct 27, 2011
Obituary for Genevieve Phelps Genevieve Phelps died Thursday, October 27, 2011, at home in Allison, Colo. She was 90. Genevieve was born August 22, 1921, to Charles Bradley and Elizabeth (King) Johnson in the family home at 162 Lewis Street in Pagosa Springs, Colo. She is preceded in death by her first husband James Theodore Olsen and her parents. While...

Flora Wittwer
Oct 26, 2011
Obituary for Flora A. Wittwer Flora Adeline Wittwer was born on April 29, 1928, to Thomas and Ruth Roberts on the homestead in Meeker, Colo. Flora passed away October 26, 2011, surrounded by her family. She married the love of her life, Chester Ely Wittwer, June 8, 1947 in Glenwood Springs, Colo. Flora had a love of fishing and hiking...

Mary Perez
Oct 26, 2011
Obituary for Mary Helen Perez Mary Helen Perez, 46, died Wednesday, October 26, 2011 at Penrose-St. Francis Hospital in Colorado Springs, Colorado. A Funeral Service will be Tuesday, November 1, 2011 at 10:00 A.M. at St. Peter - St. Rosa Catholic Church in Arboles. Father Douglas Hunt of St. Ignatius Catholic Church will be officiating. Burial will occur at Rosa...

Rodney Baulig
Oct 25, 2011
Obituary for Rodney H. Baulig Rodney Harold Baulig was born in Salem, Ore., Sept. 11, 1929, to Harold A. & Honor J. (Zell) Baulig. He graduated from Longview (Wash.)High School and served in the US Navy for nine years. He attended Oregon State University and graduated as an electrical engineer. While in the Navy, he married Jeannie Harris July 4,...

Richard Carleno
Oct 25, 2011
Obituary for Richard Q. Carleno Richard Quentin Carleno died on October 25, 2011. Richard died of metastatic disease peacefully at home in his own bed with his beloved cats Concho, Pixie, Angelo and Jazz with family and friends at his side. Richard was born September 1, 1945, to Yvonne and Benjamin Carleno, who preceded him in death. In 1952 the...

Delbert Cuthair SR.
Oct 24, 2011
Obituary for Delbert W. Cuthair Sr. Delbert W. Cuthair, Sr., passed on to the spirit world October 24, 2011. He passed on from natural causes, surrounded by his family at his home in Ignacio, Colo. Delbert was born April 15, 1951, in Ignacio. In 1970 he graduated from Ignacio High School, where he played basketball, football, and baseball. His friends...

Kevin Relaford
Oct 23, 2011
Obituary for Kevin L. Relaford Kevin Lester Relaford died Sunday, October 23, 2011, at his home in Durango. He was 59. Kevin was born October 14, 1952, in Oakland, Calif., the son of Howard and Barbara Relaford. He graduated from Peoria High School in Phoenix. He became a machinist, and he worked as an aerospace machinist for various companies. Kevin...

Mark Gallegos
Oct 23, 2011
Obituary for Mark Gallegos Durango native Mark Gallegos passed away in his sleep Sunday, October 23, 2011, of heart failure at his home in Durango. He was 61. Mr. Gallegos was born June 5, 1950, in Durango, the son of John and Matilda Gallegos. He graduated from Durango High School in 1969. He served in the U.S. Army and was...

Marjorie Jackson
Oct 19, 2011
Obituary for Marjorie A. Jackson Marjorie Ann Jackson died of ovarian cancer Wednesday, Oct. 19, 2011, at her home in Durango. She was 74. Marjorie was born July 5, 1937, in Bridgeport, Ill., the daughter of Thomas and Helen Doss. She had lived in Durango since 1965. She worked as a nurse's aide at Mercy Medical, Four Corners Health Care...

Mark Johnson
Oct 18, 2011
Obituary for Mark D. Johnson Ignacio resident Mark David Johnson died from complications of hypertension Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2011, at his home. He was 59. Mr. Johnson was born to Olen and Camille Johnson on July 8, 1952, in West Palm Beach, Fla. He graduated from Chaminade High School in Hollywood, Fla., where he was a first-team center for the...

Claudia Turner
Oct 17, 2011
Obituary for Claudia F. Turner Claudia Francis Turner, a long-time resident of Durango, age 91, passed away on October 17, 2011, in Durango, Colo. Claudia Francis Tucker was born to Charles Carson Tucker and Dura Anne (Campbell) Tucker on April 17, 1920, in Kansas City, Missouri, and moved to Atchison, Kansas, at two years of age. She was raised in...

Judith Whitlock
Oct 17, 2011
Obituary for Judith A. Whitlock Mrs. Judith Anne Whitlock, born Judith Anne Mitchell May 4, 1943, in Hillsboro, Ore., died October 17, 2011, in Durango, of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She had lived in Durango for the past 13 years. She finished 11th grade in high school, and had an IQ of 155, and a keen interest in the sciences,...

Earl Strobel
Oct 16, 2011
Obituary for Earl W. Strobel Earl Strobel, born on January 22, 1917, passed away peacefully on October 16, 2011, at the age of 94, at his home in Bayfield, Colo. He was the seventh of twelve children born to John and Johanna Strobel on the family homestead in Alberta, Canada. The family later moved to a farm, where Earl grew...

Gerald Wilson
Oct 16, 2011
Obituary for Gerald R. Wilson Bayfield resident Gerald Russell Wilson died Sunday, October 16, 2011, at home. He was 60. Mr. Wilson was born Feb. 10, 1951, in Vancouver, Wash., son of Lloyd and Frances Wilson. He served in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War, and later became a carpenter. He and Cindy Cowger were married September 26, 2000....