Dorothy Garlington broke barriers decades ago when she gave up teaching and became a journalist.
Garlington, who died April 21 at age 91, “had that extra drive” to go beyond what many women did in those days, said Sally Kurtzman, a retired English teacher at Arapahoe Community College.
“She was very forceful and outspoken, but that’s what it took,” said Kurtzman, former president of the Denver Woman’s Press Club, where Garlington was a member for 61 years.
A service for Garlington will be at 3 p.m. Friday at Montview Boulevard Presbyterian Church, 1980 Dahlia St.
Garlington taught at Trinidad State Junior College and at Brighton’s high school before being hired in the 1940s as editor of the Brighton Blade newspaper, said her daughter, Carol Garlington of Denver.
She then went to the University of Colorado and wrote for CU publications. She moved on to Voice of America, working in Washington, D.C., for 10 years.
For years, she also did freelance writing.
“She was always clear about what she wanted to do,” said her daughter, “and that was writing. She loved to interview people and was good at it because she was curious and a good listener.”
Dorothy Garlington retired in 1980 and for decades worked on a book about her mother, Mary Brose, who lived in what is now Oklahoma, her daughter said.
Dorothy Brose was born in Denver on March 28, 1920, and graduated from West High School. She earned an English degree at CU.
She met Waldon Garlington in kindergarten, and when he was 17, he asked her to marry him.
“She didn’t want to be a Navy wife,” said her daughter. So Waldon Garlington married someone else, and they later divorced. He sought out his kindergarten friend years later when she was living in Washington. They had kept in touch over the years, she told The Denver Post in 2001. They married on June 18, 1956. He died in 2001.
In addition to her daughter, Garlington is survived by a grandson.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
