Julia "Judy" Varue(Lancaster) Crow

Judy graduated from this life into heaven on July 6, 2024 at the tender age of 98+. She was born to Al and Alice Lancaster in Ackman, CO on Nov 3rd, 1925, the second of six children – Mary (Murphy), Judy (Crow), Jimmie (Perry), William, John and Sarah (Foust).

During WW2, right after she graduated from Cortez High School, she was called on to be the teacher in a one room schoolhouse at Sylvan CO. Being a teacher would be her career and life love. She attended the old Fort Lewis School south of Hesperus, earning an associate degree. This is where she got to know Roy Crow. She married Roy in 1948 after he returned from the Navy. She earned her B A at Adams State College in Alamosa. While Roy was earning his degree in chemical engineering at Kansas University, Judy used their last dime to ride a bus to Kansas City, KS to get a job where she taught in an integrated school for two years at the time of Brown v. Board of Education. As Roy was transferred around the country working on uranium and short-fiber asbestos, Judy found teaching jobs in Rifle, CO, Caspar, WY, King City, CA. When they moved to Durango, she met and loved her students at Needham and on the res at Newcomb, NM. She lost the love of her life, Roy, after only 63 years of marriage.

She maintained a life-long love of the culture of the ancient ones, donating some of the family farms west of Pleasant View, CO to the Archaeological Conservancy and another to the Ft. Lewis College Archeology Dept to help students learn to excavate the buried ruins. She maintained her family’s scholarship program for archeology and education students at the Fort.

She is survived by her brother, John, daughter Mary (Crow) Dunlap and son, Glenn Crow, numerous nieces and nephews, grandchildren, great grandchildren. Judy was passionate about God, children, flowers, birds and butterflies.

The family wishes to extend thanks to the E R staff at Mercy for their kindness and professionalism.

In lieu of flowers, donations to Durango Safe House or your favorite charity in her name.

Graveside service will be at the Sylvan Cemetery 8 miles west of Pleasant View Saturday, July 27at 10 followed by a Memorial Sharing at Durango Rotary Park from 2 – 4. It was Judy’s fondest wish that all could attend her celebration of life, including her former students and colleagues at Newcomb and Needham, please join us.