Irma Snooks

Irma Steele Snooks passed away in Bullhead City, Ariz., on February 10, 2012, two weeks shy of her ninetieth birthday. She was a fifth-generation native of Colorado and a descendant of some of the earliest colonial immigrants to come to this country.

She was born February 24, 1922, in Bayfield to Earl Glenn and Corinne Morgan Steele. Her parents, uncles and grandparents moved there in 1920 from Pueblo County, purchasing a ranch at Wallace Gulch. Her Steele, Cox and Morgan families contributed significantly to the development of Pueblo County and to the transition of Colorado from a territory to a state.

She attended the Moss School and Bayfield High School. She was known as a scrappy guard for the girls’ basketball team and graduated as class valedictorian in 1939.

Immediately after graduation, she began dating fellow classmate Otis Henry Snooks, Jr. They married in Aztec, N.M., on December 4, 1943. She and Otis raised their children on Riverview Drive in Durango. While Otis ran the Conoco wholesale distributorship, she managed the Durango Service Station across the street from the Strater Hotel. In Durango, she was a member of the League of Women Voters and Beta Sigma Phi. She served a term as president of that organization. In 1968 they moved to Farmington, N. M., where they co-owned Snooks Oil Company, Inc. She continued her involvement in Beta Sigma Phi and served as president of the Farmington Chapter as well. In 1997 they moved full-time to Bullhead City, where she served on the Board of Directors of their community’s HOA and spent years as the secretary for that organization’s Architectural Committee.

Irma had an endearing personality, a quick wit and a very sharp mind. She made special friends wherever she lived. She knew and appreciated people from all walks of life, and never judged anyone on the basis of appearance or circumstances. She liked to travel, sew, bake sweet desserts, and play video poker in Laughlin, Nev. She was a stalwart Democrat, and very much enjoyed arguing politics with her equally stalwart Republican husband. She was very proud that all three of her children had advanced degrees. Some of her lifelong Durango-based friends include: Ernie and Peryl Schaaf, Joe and Lucille (deceased) Shaw, Dave and Virginia Weller, and Fred (deceased) and Mary Helen Watkins. This group of friends called themselves “The Potlickers”.

Her parents, her sisters Grace Steele Reed and Gladys Steele Reed Hooper of Bayfield, and infant twin sons predeceased her. She is survived by her husband of sixty-eight years, and children Marjorie (Charles) Lackey of Bullhead City, Howard (Jan) Snooks of Boulder and Shirley Snooks of San Antonio. Her four grandchildren are Lee Ann Lackey of Littleton, Ray (Myia) Lackey of Silt, Colo., Joe Snooks of Denver, and Corinne (Garrison) Doctor of Lafayette, Colo. Her two great-grandchildren are Kimberly and Eli Lackey. Two brothers survive, including Stanley Steele of Bayfield and Gordon (Margie) Steele of Reno. Numerous nieces and nephews and their children and grandchildren survive, including her two specially loved nieces Donna Horn and Linda Curtis of Bayfield and Bullhead City. She is also survived by her Daughter in Spirit, Donna Stevens of San Antonio, Texas.

Visitation will be held from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Friday, February 24, 2012 at Hood Mortuary, 1261 E. 3rd Ave., in Durango. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday February 25, 2012, at Hood Mortuary. Immediately afterward, interment will take place at Pine River (Bayfield) Cemetery in Bayfield.

She will be interred in the family plot at Pine River Bayfield Cemetery, next to her twin sons and surrounded by many generations of her and her husband’s families.

Memorial contributions may be made to Bayfield’s Lavenia McCoy Public Library, 395 Bayfield Center Drive, Bayfield, CO 81122.