Aleon DeVore was a reserved, almost shy person most of her life, but when she went to a hospice last fall, “she blossomed,” said her daughter, Trinda Smith of Helena, Mont.
DeVore, 88, who died of congestive heart failure Sunday, became the “go-to person” at the Hospice of St. John, charming the staff with her thoughts, advice and wit.
A service will be held at 2 p.m. today at Drinkwine Family Mortuary, 999 W. Littleton Blvd., Littleton.
DeVore was the subject of two columns in The Denver Post and remembered by many for her determination to keep her “I Voted” sticker on her forehead until after the election — more than two weeks.
“It says I voted, and if you’re smart you’ll get off your fat duff and vote too,” the lifelong Democrat told columnist Susan Greene.
After the first column, someone placed a life-size cardboard cutout of Barack Obama in her room.
“She was a very influential person here, very much in control and very sure of herself,” said Steve Cooper, president and chief executive of the Lakewood hospice.
“She was like a magnet because people felt good after they visited her,” he said. DeVore far outdid the usual hospice stay, measured in days.
DeVore, a former columnist with the Littleton Independent, was free with advice, often edited papers that staff members wrote for their classes, encouraged older people to make audio tapes of their life reflections and loved visitors, said Sharon Cooper, a hospice consultant and wife of Steve Cooper. A sign on DeVore’s door read, “If I’m sleeping, wake me up. I want to talk.”
She told her daughter, “I believe I’m here to help people feel good about themselves.”
DeVore rarely got tough on people, unless they belittled themselves or couldn’t take compliments. “Stop that,” she’d say, or, “Don’t talk down to yourself.” Once, a staff member shunned a compliment. DeVore said, “Don’t do that, honey. It doesn’t become you.”
Aleon Belle Cook was born June 2, 1920, in Miles, Iowa, graduated from high school there and attended the University of Iowa.
She met Wilfred Henry DeVore on a cross-country bus while she was in college at Ames, Iowa, and he was a University of Colorado student.
They married Jan. 25, 1941. He apparently thought the meeting would be significant because he kept the stub of the bus ticket in his billfold until the day he died in 1985.
In addition to her daughter, DeVore is survived by her son, Chad DeVore of Denver; four grandchildren; three great-grandchildren; and her sister, Carol Kaufman of Clinton, Iowa.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
