People
Collection for person entities.
Pages
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- Irene Irby
- 2012 Cattlemen's Days Parade Marshall, married to Bob Irby in 1954, attended college in Fort Collins, former President of Gunnison Valley Cattlewomen's Association (from 2012 Cattlemen's Days Brochure)
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- Irene Visintin
- One of Telluride’s best-known and loved former residents, Irene Visintin, has passed away. Visintin, who was less than a month away from her 101st birthday, died on Dec. 12. Born on Jan. 4, 1913 to Emmanuel and Ermida Visintin, she lived in the same house on North Spruce Street for nearly 80 years. Known as one-half of “the sisters,” Visintin and her sister Elvira witnessed Telluride’s transformation from mining town to ski town. Visintin graduated from Telluride High School in 1931 and then obtained a degree in bookkeeping from Barnes Commercial School in Denver. She returned to Telluride and took a job in the town clerk’s office, working for Wilma Piele. Two years later she was hired away by attorney Charles Fairlamb to manage his office for a 12-cent-an-hour raise. She then joined the Telluride Mines, Inc. in 1939, and stayed there for the next 36 years. According to the Telluride Times, she was the first woman hired by a major Telluride mining operation and at the time she retired had the longest seniority record of any employee who weathered the transition between Telluride Mines and the Idarado Mining Company. “She had a big impact on the mining companies out there,” said her nephew Gene Wunderlich. “Every miner that worked there at Idarado or Telluride Mines at some point or another got to know Irene.” Wunderlich, who grew up in Telluride, said his aunt was a great storyteller who read to him frequently. She would work through the dictionary page by page with him and under her tutelage, Wunderlich won the San Miguel County Spelling Bee three times. “She instilled a love of reading in me that I enjoy to this day, so I thank her for that,” he said. Visintin and Elvira, known as “Vera,” are the subject of Telluride lore. They often appeared in the Telluride Daily Planet’s history column, where they related tales of riding in aerial trams during the mining days, bootleggers, feuds between the Italians and Swedes, trips to the high-alpine camps of Tomboy and Smuggler and surviving avalanches and floods. During the Cornet Creek flood of 1914, Vera, who was only a few days old, was passed out a front window to a neighbor as the flood came in the back window. Irene, just 18 months old, was carried to safety by their mother, Ermida. Originally from Austria, Ermida moved here in 1909 to the Liberty Bell Mine. A year later, her husband died and she moved down to Telluride and married Emmanuel. Irene Visintin was known as the quieter of the two sisters. “My mother was the firebrand,” Wunderlich said. “One of Irene’s main contributions was she kept a rein on Vera to keep her from going ballistic on everybody.” As Telluride made the move from a dying mining town to booming ski town, many of the newcomers weren’t particularly appreciative of the old-timers like Irene. But as time went on, the new residents came to realize what a significant piece of history the sisters represented and Visintin soon counted the new arrivals among her many dear friends. In 2006, Wunderlich moved his mother and aunt to Southern California with him, but they still returned every summer to the box canyon to visit friends, spend time at Trout Lake and be in the annual Fourth of July Parade. Wunderlich said one of Irene’s finest moments of her life was being presented the key to the city in 2010. “They always insisted on coming back every summer,” Wunderlich said. “She loved Telluride and loved all her neighbors and friends … and her mountains. The main love of her life were her mountains.” A memorial for Irene Visintin will take place in the spring and her ashes will be brought back to Lone Tree Cemetery, where she will be buried with her mother and sister, Wunderlich said. — Editors note: This obituary was compiled with information submitted by Visintin’s nephew Gene Wunderlich. --Taken 5/17/21 from: https://www.telluridenews.com/news/article_5453051c-6d7b-5e21-a751-39c6f5ae0a0f.html