Ann Butler, 67, of Durango, recognized by her peers for her compassion, inquisitive nature and dedicated work on The Durango Herald’s Neighbors Column, died unexpectedly on Monday after contending with long-lasting medical complications.
The official cause of death was cerebrovascular disease, a condition that affects blood flow to the brain. A visitation for Butler was held at noon Tuesday at Hood Mortuary.
Butler’s family said she passed away with a full heart, having just visited with old friends for the Durango High School class of 1973’s 50th reunion the weekend before her death.
She died in her sleep, her cousin, Sarah Sumner, said. She believes Butler had a peaceful passing, although her death was “sudden and very shocking” because she was visiting with childhood friends for her high school reunion just days before she died.
Colleagues and friends of Butler described her as “intelligent,” “well read,” “an expert parliamentarian” and “an incredible wordslinger.”
“Ann knew most of Durango, those in positions of influence and those not, especially those not,” Ballantine Communications Board Chairman Richard Ballantine said. “She lived city and county events for four decades, and had an instinct for what mattered to people and what would be of interest to others. She was an invaluable contributor to the Herald.”
Friends and family said Butler was heavily involved in several area organizations, including the Reading Club of Durango, established in 1882 as one of the first women’s groups in Colorado to be federated; the professional group Women in Communications; Durango Friends of the Arts; the Durango branch of the American Association of University Women; and the Rotary Club of Durango Daybreak.
Sumner said Butler spoke fluent English and Spanish and was involved in some of the earliest efforts to offer organized Spanish language instruction in Durango through a business called Habla, which she started with her father. The business produced and distributed Spanish language tutorials on VHS tapes.
“She loved the community, she loved learning about people,” Sumner said. “She loved learning in general.”
Butler attended the University of Denver for her undergraduate studies and then the Thunderbird School of Global Management for her Masters in International Marketing. Her first jobs were with Celestial Seasons and Amway.
She joined the Herald in 2000 and left in 2017 after having a stroke the previous year.
Butler had an incredible memory, Sumner said. She was able to recall when and where long past community events happened and what happened at them. She could retrieve conversations from her memory that occurred decades earlier. She participated regularly in trivia nights at the Powerhouse and even had her 15 minutes of fame on the television trivia show “Jeopardy!”
Her friend and colleague Beth Green said Butler’s “unquenchable curiosity” and gregarious attitude made her a natural fit for the Herald’s Neighbors Column and local journalism. Her persistence in keeping in touch with area nonprofits, groups and organizations and her attention to detail made her Neighbors Column the most-read and most successful column in the newspaper for years.
“She just really cared about people, and she really wanted to help and she really found her calling, I think, working for The Durango Herald,” Green said.
Butler eventually broke into writing obituaries for the newspaper. She had such a knack for it she started teaching classes about obituary writing. Sumner said Butler touched the lives of thousands of people over the years through tenderhearted obituaries rich in well-researched details.
She said Butler knew the obituaries would serve as genealogical records for families and felt like she was doing the deceased and the families left behind a huge service.
Butler had a “wonderful, sweet” way of connecting with people, usually over a phone call, while they grieved and tried to piece together a fitting obituary, Sumner said.
Butler’s obituary process helped grieving families assess their grief, Sumner said. She used an obituary template she made to conduct her interviews. She asked people questions, listened deeply to their stories and crafted accurate records.
Judith Reynolds, who worked with Butler at the Herald, said she and Butler started a community program called “Going Out in Style,” wherein Reynolds discussed memorializing history through sculpture and artwork and Butler explored obituary writing, dissecting excerpts from obituaries with the best examples of storytelling.
“For me, this was a long-term friendship, and we developed those community programs together,” Reynolds said.
Reynolds said in 2017, she and Butler happened to be at Mercy Hospital at the same time. Reynolds was recovering from surgery and Butler was headed in for it.
They made a point to have meals together in Butler’s room when they were able to. Reynolds said she remembers they pretended to be dining out in a Paris bistro, referring to things in the room by their French names and laughing loud enough to prompt a visit by the nurses.
“It was a wonderful shared moment, and to me it really illuminated the kind of friend she was, who always made the best of a poor situation and could find a lighter side to something,” she said.
Reynolds said Butler had a “heroic” medical history. The Herald reported in July 2018 that medical issues forced Butler to walk in a boot and use crutches. Until her departure from the newsroom in 2017, she persevered and continued to cover breaking news and attend late-night meetings.
Beth Lamberson (Warren), another longtime friend and colleague, said Butler had an unbelievable talent for picking up on things left unsaid in interviews.
She said Butler interviewed her after she accepted a radio job in Chico, California, and perfectly captured everything that led up to Lamberson accepting the job. One could make a declarative statement and Butler would be able to suss out the nuances behind it.
“She was just a fantastic member of our community,” she said.
Sumner said she and Butler grew closer after a fatal car crash in the 1990s killed Butler’s mother, Kathleen Thelma (Myres) McGaughey, and left her father Charlie Butler with a permanent brain injury. Butler moved back to Durango full-time to help care for her father, who died about 10 years later.
Butler’s biological father, John French McGaughey, died of a heart attack when she was an infant. She was adopted by Charlie Butler after he married her mother.
Sumner said her best memories of her cousin are Butler family Christmases, back when Sumner’s three daughters still lived at home with her. The family practiced a ceremony of lighting Advent candles and reciting old songs and prayers their grandmother had plucked from other church bulletins and rewritten by hand.
“We just would take turns reading it and lighting candles and that was always a really special ceremony that she loved sharing with us,” she said.
Sumner said they carried on the tradition with Butler last Christmas virtually. Butler was in a care facility in Denver at the time, and it was a bittersweet moment because it was hard for her to be away from her family over the Christmas holiday.
Butler is survived by her cousins, Sarah Butler Sumner, of Durango; Laura Nass of Denver; Julia Nass of Boulder; Meredith Nass of Durango; Ellen Butler of Minneapolis; her aunt and uncle Martha and David Butler of Minneapolis; and her niece and nephews Barbara Ann Miller Yates, Charles Andrew Miller and Robert Miller.
The family requests charitable contributions be made to any Durango nonprofit; suggestions include Durango Friends of the Arts, Trails 2000, the American Association of University Women or the League of Women Voters of La Plata County.
A memorial service will be held at a later date.
cburney@durangoherald.com
