They came every election cycle, the powerful and well-connected men from faraway cities who journeyed to a wind-swept valley and kneeled before a woman in white sneakers.
Michael Bennet. John Hickenlooper. Bill Ritter. Mark Udall.
They all had designs on leading the state or nation.
They all first from Emma Salazar.
“Keep safe where you are going,” she would say, extending her hands toward them in the same benediction she gave to her own children or neighbors or anybody else who happened to be passing through.
Salazar, at the age of 93, was Colorado’s gentlest power player. Her ancestors, whose lineage stretches back generations in northern New Mexico, helped shaped the history of the Southwest before Colorado even became a state. Her children, who include former U.S. senator and interior secretary Ken Salazar and former congressman John Salazar, have helped shape Colorado’s future.
But Emma Salazar’s lasting legacy, her family says, is not one of clout but of generosity.
“She was a grandmother to almost everyone she met,” her eldest surviving son, LeRoy, said. “She was patient. She was kind. She was not judgmental. She set an example for us in honoring the concepts of family and faith and community.”
Salazar was born Emma Montoya into a family that would grow to include two brothers and eight sisters, all living on a remote New Mexico ranch. She moved to Washington, D.C., during World War II and worked as a secretary in the War Department. But family ties pulled her home, and she married a San Luis Valley man, Henry Salazar, .
Together, they made their first home in the back two rooms of Henry Salazar’s parents’ house, on a ranch southeast of Alamosa called Los Rincones. One son followed, then a second, a third, a fourth, a daughter, and, last, triplets. Eight children.
“At night, there was always two or three kids to a bed,” LeRoy Salazar said.
But, Emma and Henry found time to encourage each one to pursue an education. All eight graduated from college.
Despite the children’s accomplishments, LeRoy — who serves on the board of trustees for Adams State University — said his mother was never boastful. When John and Ken went off triumphantly to Washington, Emma matter-of-factly told a reporter, “They’d better do their best.”
And when asked how she managed to raise so many successful kids in a small house that had no electricity or telephone until 1981, she nodded to her Catholic faith.
“Every day, I offered my day to the Lord, and that’s how it happened,” she said.
As her sons made their names in politics, the goodwill benedictions that Emma Salazar gave to visitors also gained renown. On Tuesday, Hickenlooper of him receiving a blessing from her.
“She was an inspiration, a legend, a gift to those who met her,” he wrote.
The family has planned four separate memorial or prayer services this week, in the San Luis Valley towns of Manassa, La Jara, Capulin and Conejos. And her family worries even that might not be a enough for all the people who have called to share their stories of Emma.
The valley’s largest church holds only 350 people.
John Ingold: 303-954-1068, jingold@denverpost.com or @johningold
