Beverly Darmour, a key player in the Durango Public Library, Hospice of Mercy, Meals on Wheels and the community Thanksiving Dinner, died at home of heart failure Monday. She was 92.

“One of things that was most important to her was just the well-being of Durango, she loved the community so deeply,” said her son, Fitz Neal.

Darmour moved to Durango in 1945 and worked as an X-ray technician, a medical records librarian at Mercy Hospital and the business manager at Durango Orthopedics, he said.

After her retirement in 1986, Darmour and her second husband, Myron, spent much of their time on community projects, including the hospice, which they started in their living room in the early 1980s.

“She had read about it because she was a reader, and thought it was a wonderful idea that people could have the option of dying gracefully in their homes and with dignity,” Neal said.

She was involved either as a volunteer or financially ever since, he said.

She saw her work on the Durango Public Library board of directors during the planning and construction of the new building as one her most important accomplishments, he said. She was on the board for at least 10 years, and she wanted to make sure residents had access to literature.

“Probably her greatest passion in life was reading,” he said.

She passed her love for books on to her children Neal and his sisters, Tina Lam and Maureen “Reenie” Neal.

They didn’t have a television while they were growing up and that encouraged them to read.

Maureen Neal was inspired to teach English and specialize in linguistics because of her mother’s passion.

The two would spend afternoons in Darmour’s last year with a dictionary, learning new words and their histories.

“Words for her were almost living, breathing things, like a favorite friend. ... She would get into the essence of savoring what a word meant,” Fitz Neal said.

She also passed on her faith to her children. She was a member of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church since 1949 and started a ministry there called Caring Community focused visiting the sick.

“We learned faith from our mother without it being something that was for show. It was something very deep and real,” Fitz Neal said. Her faith inspired him to become a pastor.

After her second husband died, she started volunteering at the Methodist Thrift Shop and continued until late 2016, her friend Kathy Burns said.

In addition to her children, Darmour is survived by her sister, Donna Steinkellner of Beloit, Wisconsin; grandson, Gabe Lamb of Burlingame, California; and great-grandchildren, Seb, Calla, Kate Lamb and Jasper Fraser-Woodhead.

She was preceded in death by her first husband, Tommy Neal, and her second husband, Myron “Father Mike” Darmour.

mshinn@durangoherald.com

Memorial service

A memorial service for Beverly Darmour will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Mark’s Episcopal Church in Durango.