Ann M. Stonebraker

Rebecca Ann McDowell Stonebraker was not a Colorado native, but her heart belonged to Colorado from the age of three. Ann was born in Toledo, Ohio, the third child of Elizabeth Jacobs McDowell and Thomas Howard McDowell, a minister ordained in the Presbyterian Church. Dr. McDowell was called to pastor the Presbyterian Church in Blackwell, Oklahoma in 1929 and he purchased a new Willys-Knight sedan to make the more than three-day trip to move his family west. It was their custom to take a month’s vacation and in that summer of 1929 they planned a road trip to Colorado and the mountains that their dear friend, Dr. John Timothy Stone, had talked about during Dr. McDowell’s seminary days in Chicago. They stayed in a rented cabin at the YMCA of the Rockies. Dr. Stone visited one morning and said that he had an empty cottage on the hill opposite and invited them to take it as his guest. They stayed for a week and during this time Dr. Stone persuaded Ann’s Grandmother Jacobs to purchase the cabin and three acres, which they called “Tree Tops.” The family moved to Enid, Oklahoma in 1935, where Dr. McDowell had accepted the pastorate of First Presbyterian Church. Ann called Enid home throughout her formative years during the Depression and the years of World War II, but the family spent every summer at the Estes Park cabin, where decades of family memories have been made.

Ann enrolled at Tulsa University in September 1944, frequently returning to Enid for the weekend. She met William Noel Stonebraker, a Colorado native, at a USO dance. Bill was in flight training at the Enid Air Base, and they wrote daily letters to each other after his graduation as a pilot. Ann was shocked when Bill’s mother notified her that he had been shot down over Germany on his first mission. Bill and his fellow prisoners of war were liberated by the United States Army division led by General Dwight D. Eisenhower. Although Bill returned from overseas in 1945, he and Ann delayed their marriage for a year in deference to her father’s wishes for Ann to finish her second year of college. In the summer of 1946 Ann and Bill were married at Tree Tops on July 4th, with her father officiating, assisted by Dr. Stone.

After honeymooning at Yellowstone Park, they began their lifetime adventure in Hobbs, New Mexico where they had purchased a partnership in an insurance firm. Three of their daughters were born in Hobbs—Beverly, Judith, and Elizabeth (Betsy). In 1954 the family moved to Denver, where Bill and Ann’s fourth daughter Dorothy, was born. It was not long before the couple decided to join Bill’s father, Laurel L. Stonebraker, in the fireworks business.

They worked hard, lived simply, and loved this country and their family. Bill and Ann celebrated almost 58 years of marriage before his death in 2004. Ann took to motherhood and always loved being surrounded by her ever-growing family, currently numbering 51! In addition to two sons-in-law and her four daughters, Beverly Snyder, Judith (Larry) Fulkerson, Betsy Overton, and Dorothy (Mike) Olson, ten grandchildren, nine of them with spouses, and 26 great-grandchildren, Ann is survived by her brother John Estabrook McDowell of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada.

Ann loved gardening, road trips, counted cross stitch, bird watching, and reading good spy novels and historical fiction. She became an accomplished watercolor artist, after starting lessons at the age of 83. An active member of Central Longmont Presbyterian Church, Ann volunteered in the office and in children’s ministry and worked with Faith Sowers to make liturgical banners for the church. Ann was a 70-year member of P.E.O. and a charter member of Chapter EO Denver.

A private funeral and burial are planned for Saturday, September 5th. In lieu of flowers memorial contributions may be made to The Wild Animal Sanctuary, Keenesburg, Colorado or the P.E.O. Program for Continuing Education, c/o Chapter EO Treasurer, P.O. Box 21181, Denver, CO 80221.