Nancy Evans Modesitt

Born March 16, 1920, Denver, Colorado

Died March 11, 2022, Greenwood Village, Colorado

Nancy Evans Modesitt was born in Denver, Colorado, on March16, 1920, to Francis Joseph Evans and Mildred Ashbaugh Evans. With her older sister Jeanne, Nancy grew up in the Washington Park area and graduated from South High School, where she was the salutatorian of her graduating class in 1937. One of the other highlights of her high school years occurred in the summer of 1937, when as a member of the South High School Rebel Rangers she spent three months bicycling across western Europe, with the majority of that time being spent in Germany. That adventure spurred a love of travel that took her around the world over her lifetime.

Following her first European adventure, she entered the University of Colorado, where, after her first year, Leland Exton Modesitt attempted to gain an introduction to her through a golf game with her father, Dr. Frank J. Evans. When that failed, Lee then followed up by taking Nancy to dinner and dancing at the Old Broadmoor Supper Club. Courtship followed, and three years later, Nancy and Lee were married on June 28, 1941 at the Washington Park Community Church. At Nancy’s insistence, they were married only after she had graduated from C.U. and Lee had received his law degree and passed the Colorado Bar Examination.

After the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Lee was commissioned as a Navy ensign, and Nancy accompanied him when he supervised gunnery training in Indiana and Illinois, during which time Nancy’s first son (Lee, Jr.) was born. Then she returned to Denver to live with her family where her second son, Jeff, was born.

In November of 1945, Nancy and Lee moved to the recently incorporated Cherry Hills Village where they lived for two years, until Lee accepted a position with a law firm in Honolulu. They enjoyed the time there on Oahu but moved back to Denver in 1949 to be closer to the family.

Once back in Denver, Nancy and Lee built a house in Cherry Hills Village where they lived for the next thirty years. Most of her efforts were focused on her family, but she was able to turn some of her considerable energies to grass-roots politics, in which she was involved for much of the rest of her life, beginning with her positions with the League of Women Voters and continuing with involvement with numerous Colorado political campaigns over the next thirty years. She also became a licensed real estate agent and spent a decade finding homes for people in the areas south of Denver proper.

From 1979 to 1989, Nancy and Lee decided on “semi-retirement.” They moved to Princeville, Kauai, where they enjoyed both the climate and the golf, and Nancy played duplicate bridge, at which she was excellent. When they returned to the mainland, they settled in a townhome adjoining that of their son Jeff. After her husband’s death in 2002, Nancy remained active in family affairs until the end of her incredible 102 years and always claimed her right to unmercifully spoil the younger members of her sons’ families.

From her earliest years, Nancy was an avid reader, particularly of science fiction and fantasy, and spurred this interest in both of her sons from their early years, enough that her son Lee ended up becoming a best-selling author of over 80 books, something that would not have happened without her encouragement. She also had the “collecting gene” and passed that on to her son Jeff, who has written numerous philatelic articles and published several philatelist journals.

She was intensely practical, and could drive a lawn tractor with the best, but always displayed a sense of style. She was a deeply loved matriarch, fiercely devoted to and protective of her family, but also warm, welcoming, and supportive of those who became family. She was always cheerfully active and abhorred the very idea of boredom. She was also fond of cars with powerful V-8 engines, but somehow mostly evaded speeding tickets and had enough sense to turn in her keys in her nineties when she felt her reflexes weren’t what they should be.

She is survived by sons Leland (Carol Ann) and Jeffrey (Leslie), three nieces, one nephew, eleven grandchildren, and sixteen great-grandchildren.