Elizabeth DeVries ran a drive-in theater, drove a truck over the mountains to deliver produce and helped raise a buffalo herd.
DeVries, a familiar figure in Olathe, died April 16 at a care center in Olathe. She was 92. A service will be at 11 a.m. today at Montrose Christian Church.
The family opened the Star Drive-In in 1950, and it is still open, Colorado’s oldest drive- in theater continuously owned by the same family.
It also is one of only seven outdoor movie theaters in the state, said Elizabeth DeVries’ daughter Pam Friend of Olathe, who operates the theater and is a member of the national United Drive-In Theater Owners’ Association.
The theater, which can hold 300 cars, shows only family films. Elizabeth DeVries “lost a lot of interest in movies after John Wayne died,” said Friend.
Elizabeth Kutkauskas was born Dec. 16, 1917, in Waterbury, Conn., and the family moved to Colorado when she was in elementary school.
She attended school through the eighth grade and then got jobs such as picking berries for 10 cents a flat.
When she was 19, she began taking care of her bedridden mother and got a job in a cafe.
She married George DeVries Sr. on Feb. 20, 1938.
George DeVries hunted and trapped animals, and his wife learned how to skin and stretch the pelts. Over the years, they started a buffalo herd, built a home and bought land. They raised hogs, cattle, rabbits and chickens. The DeVries Buffalo Ranch has 60 buffalo.
George DeVries died in 1995.
For 41 years, until the mid- 1980s, Elizabeth DeVries trucked fruit and vegetables to Silverton, about 90 miles away. She drove the route weekly, sometimes selling the produce door to door.
She also made trips to Crested Butte, Telluride, Lake City and Gunnison.
Her family remembers their mother “barreling over Red Mountain Pass” when it was a gravel road, said Friend.
“She always drove fast and told me I drove like a grandma,” said her daughter Betty Godbey of Montrose.
DeVries had a “wonderful way with people” and was also feisty and independent, Friend said.
In addition to her daughters, DeVries is survived by a son, Mick DeVries of Montrose; her sister Rose Lewis of Watsonville, Calif.; seven grandchildren; and several great-grandchildren and step-great-grandchildren.
She was preceded in death by her sister Alice Sorensen, a grandchild and a great-grandchild.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
