Louena Rouviere Dilts

LOUENA ROUVIERE DILTS Graveside services for longtime Cortez resident Louena Rouviere Dilts will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, August 12 at the Cortez Cemetery. Reverend Lynn Evans will officiate. A visitation has been scheduled for Friday afternoon from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Ertel Memorial Chapel. Louena Rouviere Dilts passed on with dignity at Dirigo Pines in Orono, Maine, where she spent the last twenty months. Louena was born on April 15, 1915 in Gunnison, Colorado on the Rainbow Ranch, the daughter of Louis Henry Rouviere and Maida Beatrice Carroll. It is from her roots on the ranch, preparing meals for 60 hungry cowhands, that she developed her culinary skills. She published two cook Books, “A Cook Book” and “The Way to His Heart”. Louena graduated from Western State College in Gunnison in 1936. With a sense of adventure, she left the ranch for the big city of Denver and started her postgraduate studies. It was on the CU campus where she met her love of her life, George E. Dilts and was happily married for 59 years. In 1947, Louena settled in Cortez where she dedicated her life to her family, her husband’s law practice and various civic organizations, as well as being an accomplished artist. During her time in Maine, she looked back fondly on her pioneer friends in Cortez with sadness that she couldn’t visit or see the amazing sunsets, the Sleeping Ute, the sunrise over Mesa Verde and the aroma of sagebrush. Forever etched in her memory where friends and adventures in Cortez. Fortunately, while kidnapped in Maine, she relished time spent with her grandchildren and her great grand daughter, Sydney Bennett. Her profound ability to nurture and love, along with her sense of humor were with her to the end. Wonderful friends called and her connection to her home in Cortez was never lost. Her two sons survive Louena: Lou (Clare) of Littleton, Colorado and George (Page) of Winterport, Maine. Also her six Grandchildren; Chris, Monica, Brian, Carole (daughter Sydney), Ian and Lindsey. Louena was an avid member of many local, state and national organizations: President of Southwest Division of Colorado Federated Women’s Club, Charter member of Beta Sigma Phi Sorority, Ute Mountain Study Club, Minnie Harding Loan Fund, Tuesday Coffee Club and the Calkins Junior High PTA. Memorial contributions may be made in Louena’s name to the Cortez P.E.O. College Scholarship Fund in care of Sheryl Merritt, P.O. Box 156, Dolores, Colorado 81323.