Mary Reinhardt was precise, disciplined and organized and very much in charge of things.
That included her birth certificate, where, according to a niece, Rein hardt changed her date of birth.
Judith Fleck said she believes her aunt was 101 when she died at a Westminster nursing home April 9, but there is reason to believe she might have been younger or older.
Most everything else about Reinhardt was carefully charted and planned – her diaries, her budgets (which date to 1931), her perfect home and her outfits – suits, blouses, high heels, gloves and hats. “Dressed to the nines,” Fleck said.
For almost five decades, Rein hardt was an executive secretary at the Denver Livestock Exchange, a job she loved, though family members can’t remember her ever attending the National Western Stock Show.
Reinhardt’s interests leaned toward another kind of stock, the stock market, as well as bridge, golf, bowling and dropping nickels into the machines in Las Vegas. She was successful at all of them.
She and her late sister, Nelli McGurk, along with two of McGurk’s daughters, Fleck and Judy Cirillo of Colorado Springs, made frequent trips to Vegas. The frugal Reinhardt took along vodka, Bloody Mary mix and a can opener, Fleck said.
There was often tension between Reinhardt and McGurk, and they didn’t want to live together at Windsor Gardens retirement community, Fleck said. But they didn’t mind being across the street from each other.
Rarely sick, Reinhardt mostly avoided doctors and instead took a lot of vitamins and ate a careful diet. But she always liked a drink, so Fleck made sure there were several small bottles of wine in her nursing-home closet. They lasted because Reinhardt wanted only a few sips a day.
Just a few inches over 5 feet tall, and careful never to weigh more than 100 pounds, Reinhardt had loads of furs – wraps, coats and stoles – because her husband owned a mink and fox ranch in Arvada.
Mary Edna Warsavage was born in Lafayette, took classes at the University of Denver and earned a business degree at the Emily Griffith Opportunity School.
A first marriage ended in divorce, and on Feb. 6, 1937, she married Al Reinhardt. They lived in Conifer until his death in 1990.
In addition to Fleck and Cirillo, she is survived by nieces Linda Rockhold of Aurora, Mary Dresser of Santa Barbara, Calif., and Barbara Warsavage of Denver; and nephew Don Warsavage of Boulder.
Staff writer Virginia Culver can be reached at vculver@denverpost.com or 303-820-1223.
