Audrey Evans DeRango

As a child, Audrey, the third of four children, was athletic and enterprising. She was among the first female cheerleaders at Hinsdale High School, graduating in 1947. After her brother, Tom, died at 18, her father died of colon cancer at the age of 50. The sadness of her early life made her value moments of “happiness” the remainder of her life. She raised the money for college and attended Cornell College in Iowa on work study, graduating in 1951, 4th in her class, 1st in Science, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa. While at Cornell, she was president of the Girls Athletic Association.

She attended graduate school on scholarship at Northwestern University in Chicago and became a Registered Physical Therapist. While caring for polio patients at the University of Illinois Research and Education Hospital, she was set up on a blind date with a medical resident, Frank DeRango. They were married on June 20, 1953 in Westmont, on a 104.2 degree day, the hottest on record many years.

Frank started his family medical practice in Macomb, Illinois, and together they raised four children, born between 1955 and 1960 – Judy, Dan, David and Donna. Audrey taught swimming lessons at the Glenwood Park public pool. In 1967, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and underwent radical surgery.

In January 1968, Frank and Audrey visited friends living in Florida, Dr. Joseph and Marian Tienstra, who arranged for Frank to meet with Dr. Frank Moya at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Miami, and Dr. DeRango was accepted into the Anesthesiology program at the University of Miami. The family moved to Plantation, Florida in summer 1968, and Frank left his family practice in Macomb and became a full-time student and medical resident.

When Frank completed the Anesthesiology residency, the family moved to Naples, Florida in 1970. Frank joined an existing practice and became Chief of Anesthesiology and headed a group of anesthesiologists that grew until his retirement, along with the population of Naples. He also established Naples’ first intensive care capabilities at Naples Community Hospital, bringing inhalator technology he had studied in Miami to southwest Florida.

Audrey became active in the Naples community. In the 1970s, she was co-chair of Project Hope, helped bring an Osolo Theatre performance to Naples, and served on the board of the United Way of Naples. She was among the founders a group of Naples doctors wives that exists today.

While raising four teenagers, when Naples had a building moratorium within the city limits, the couple bought land in the Twin Lakes subdivision and built and rented duplexes, houses and an apartment building. Audrey became a realtor and completed her GRE Master Realtor designation. Over the years, she was affiliated with Naples realty groups including Hayhoe Associates, Powell & Yanson/Merrill Lynch and Prudential Realty.

Audrey and Frank traveled around the globe, spent summers in Santa Fe, NM and family vacations on Captiva Island. She was an opera lover, a longtime supporter of the Miami Opera, the Santa Fe Opera and The Phil / Artis in Naples. An avid photographer, she video-taped many weddings, sharing photos and videos with her friends and family. She played tennis until the age of 86, and survived both breast cancer and kidney cancer.

Frank and Audrey moved to Canterbury Tower, Tampa, FL, in 2021. She had been in skilled nursing care and hospice care at Canterbury since Mother’s Day week 2023. The family is very grateful to her nurses and caregivers.

She is survived by her husband, Dr. Frank J. DeRango. Her family includes a sister, Sarah Evans McCracken, who lives in Aspen. Her elder sister, Jean Evans Keever Ryan; brother, Thomas Evans; and dear friend of 48 years, Olive “Cappi” Reading, precede her in death. Her children are Judy DeRango Wicks (Alan), Atlanta; Daniel DeRango (Joan), Maitland, FL; David DeRango, St. Petersburg, FL; and Donna DeRango Colby (Alfred), Tampa, FL. She has eight grandchildren: Elizabeth Colby Locke (Daniel), RachelAnn DeRango Davenport (Dominique), Audrey Frances Morris, John Winston Colby (Hannah), Drake DeRango (Ashleigh), Raleigh DeRango George (Aaren), Dane DeRango and Margaret Ann Colby. She enjoyed her ten great-grandchildren, with two more on the way. Her goddaughter, Mary Reading Woessner, lives in Arizona. She also was beloved by cousins in the Hart, Keever, DeRango and Wirt families. She was a member of P.E.O. Florida Chapter GX, Naples, FL and Naples United Church of Christ.

A memorial service will be held on Sunday, August 20, 2:00 p.m. at Blount and Curry Funeral Home, 605 S. MacDill Avenue, Tampa, FL 33609.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to P.E.O. Foundation, (Note: Audrey Evans DeRango scholarship fund), 3700 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, Iowa 50312. The P.E.O. sisterhood provides educational opportunities for women.