Lela Boyer

Lela Joanne Boyer, 65, died Thursday, September 11, 2014 in Durango, Colorado. Private family interment will occur and a memorial service will be announced at a later date.
Lela was born and raised in Winfield, Kansas. She attended Southwestern College in Winfield and graduated magna cum laude with a degree in music in 1971. She was married to Charles Forsyth from 1969 to 1991 and they had two children, Trent and Charisse. Trent farms in Yates Center, Kansas and Charisse serves in the Air Force in Mountain Home, Idaho. Lela spent much of her adult life in Kingman, Kansas. She married Bob Boyer, a physician in Kingman, in 1995. They moved to Durango in 2001.
Lela was a superb pianist and taught piano for over 30 years. She did not enjoy solo performances, but loved being an accompanist to all sorts of school, church, and other small town groups. Her lifelong passions were music, books, photography, gardening, wildlife, travel, and family. She viewed others as members of a team and felt it was her duty to assist them to become better players in life. It was this unique act of love that endeared her to all those around her. Lela was a woman of great talent and energy and she brought her many organizational skills to the Durango Friends of the Library, where her imprint will endure. An insidious cancer took her from all that loved her and her absence leaves a cavernous sadness.
She is survived by two children (and three step children), a husband, two brothers, a sister and her mother, and five grandchildren (and 8 step grandchildren).
Memorials may be sent to the Durango Public Library or Friends of the Library, or to the Berner-Garde Foundation, an organization that studies diseases in Bernese Mountain Dogs.