Judith Whitlock

Mrs. Judith Anne Whitlock, born Judith Anne Mitchell May 4, 1943, in Hillsboro, Ore., died October 17, 2011, in Durango, of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. She had lived in Durango for the past 13 years.

She finished 11th grade in high school, and had an IQ of 155, and a keen interest in the sciences, which she read extensively about whenever she could. She was widowed at the age of thirty, and never remarried.

She was a homemaker, artist, and mother. Her passions were gardening, weaving, cooking, photography, sewing, and reading; but she did a great many creative things over her lifetime, from painting to sculpture, furniture making and restoring, macramé, knitting, doll making, and once, built a roof for a patio deck, by herself.

She was self-taught woman in all of her interests. Until her health declined, she always had a huge elaborate garden everywhere she lived. She had an unusual and unorthodox childhood and adult life, after being widowed. She moved with her family to Mexico at the age of eight, and learned to speak and write Spanish as fluently as English. She was a free spirit in many ways, and as an adult, lived in Detroit, Los Angeles, New Mexico, Mexico, and on the road, with her three young children.

She is survived by her brother, David, of Ojo Caliente, N.M., her half-brother, Star, of Manassis, Mass.; her cousin Chris, of Pilar, N.M.; her three children: Marcia, of Grass Valley, Calif.; Jim, of Durango; and Robert, of Phoenix, Ariz.; and her grandson, Brian, of Eagle Nest, N.M.

There is a ceremony planned in Durango in May 2012.