Holly Coors, a Republican activist and the former wife of late Coors Brewery magnate Joseph Coors, died Sunday at her Golden home after a long illness. She was 88.
Services will be at 11 a.m. Jan. 28 at St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral, East 13th Avenue and Clarkson Street.
Holly and Joe Coors were heavily involved in national politics, especially during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush years. The couple had been friends with the Reagans dating back to the 1960s, when Reagan was California governor. Joseph Coors, a grandson of Coors Brewery founder Adolph Coors, was a member of Reagan’s “kitchen cabinet,” a group that advised Reagan on appointments.
She was chairman of the Colorado Reagan campaign in 1980 and 1984.
In 1985, Reagan appointed Holly Coors to represent the U.S. at the U.N. Decade for Women Conference in Nairobi, Kenya. She told The Post after the conference that she had little in common with people from Third World countries.
She told a Denver Post reporter in 1985 that she loved her husband and loved her life. “It’s nice to be a Coors,” she said.
But two years later, she filed for divorce, saying the marriage was “irretrievably broken.”
The divorce was final in 1988, and the court records were sealed. Her ex-husband died in 2003.
Holly Coors considered running for governor in 1985.
Known in Denver as a gracious hostess, she acknowledged she had no background in politics but told a Post reporter that she would like to make the governor’s mansion a place for entertaining.
“I’d like to create a little White House. I’d like to do to it (the mansion) what Nancy (Reagan) did at the White House.”
Holly Coors raised money for her son, Pete Coors, when he ran unsuccessfully in 2004 for the U.S. Senate seat won by Ken Salazar.
She told The Denver Post, “It’s the money, honey.”
A strong supporter of George W. Bush, she said when he was running for a second term: “It breaks my heart when they criticize him. They hated our Lord too.”
She also said that the way to help women “is not the Equal Rights Amendment but through free enterprise.”
A spokeswoman for Pete Coors said the family would have no comment for this story.
In a press release, the family said Holly Coors had “a vibrant love and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ” and was “humble, resilient, kind, determined and joyful.”
Holland Hanson was born on Aug. 25, 1920, in Bangor, Maine, and reared in Philadelphia. Her father was a paper manufacturer.
She was a New York City model and looking toward a career as a fashion designer when she met Joe Coors at a yacht club in Nantucket, Mass. They married on April 16, 1941.
In 1982, Holly Coors got a job as a freelance photographer for a social column in the Saturday Evening Post.
She was on multiple boards, including the Heritage Foundation, which Joe Coors helped found; the U.S. Air Force Academy board of visitors; the Federalist Society; and A Christian Ministry in the National Parks.
In addition to Pete Coors, she is survived by four other sons: Joe Coors Jr., Jeff Coors, Grover Coors and John Coors; 28 grandchildren; and 24 great-grandchildren.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
