Violet May Curtis Freel was born in Canon City, Colorado on December 30, 1931 to Helen Elizabeth Walby and Fred Victor Curtis. She went to be with the Lord on Wednesday, June 17, 2015. Violet spent the first part of her childhood in Guffy, Colorado, and moved to the San Luis Valley in February of 1945, where she lived in Waverly for a brief time before her family settled in Hooper, where Violet attended Hooper High School, home of the Bulldogs.

In 1951 Violet married Jearold (Jed) Freel and not long after they moved to Fairbanks, Alaska where they started a business and had five children, Jerry (Susan) Freel, Barbara Anderson, Britt Freel, Tracy Freel, and Ginger Freel. At times Violet and Jed also had children living with them who were not biologically their own, and it was typical for them to have a house full of kids. After her husband’s death in 1971, Violet returned to the San Luis Valley to be near her relatives and finish raising her younger children, sometimes traveling back and forth to Alaska to work for another business she created with her son.

Violet was a wonderful mom, grandma, sister, aunt, and friend, who was deeply cherished and loved by her family and relatives. She was a woman of many talents who enjoyed various business endeavors, sewing, ceramics, shooting guns, cooking holiday dinners, going places, taking pictures, building and fixing things, and taking care of her parents, kids and grandkids and watching them play sports. She spent some time teaching shooting sports to her grandchildren and community kids.

Violet was preceded in death by her husband, Jed, her parents, Helen and Fred Curtis, two brothers, Donald and George Curtis, and two grandchildren, Darshae Freel and Travis Anderson. She is survived by her children, four siblings, John (Claudia) Curtis, Doris (Ted) Ross, Chuck (Joan) Curtis, and Ted (Geraldine) Curtis, 16 grandchildren, 11 great-grandchildren, several step grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews.
Funeral Services will be held at 10:00 A.M., Friday, June 26 at Hooper Baptist Church. Graveside services will follow at Rio Alto Cemetery in Moffat.

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