Doris was born in Denver, Colorado on August 23, 1926 to Roger Davenport and Lillian Ouderkirk. Growing up in south Denver, she attended Steele Elementary School, Byers Junior High, South High and the University of Denver.
When Doris was young her mother died and her father was remarried to Charline Essley, a former Vaudeville dancer and performer. They had a child Nancy, who was fourteen years younger and was always a joy to Doris.
She was raised just one block north of Washington Park, and enjoyed playing tennis in the summer and ice-skating on Washington Park Lake in the winter.
At South High she was a proud Rebel and a model student, which made her eligible for a scholarship to the University of Denver. Her high school years were in the course of World War II. Doris pitched in the war effort by taking public transportation out to the western edge of town to the Denver Munitions Plant in Lakewood (Alameda and Kipling - now the Federal Center) so that she could help by making .30 caliber cartridges and checking parts for bombs.
While World War II was winding down in 1946, as a Junior at the University of Denver she met the love of her life, Gene Steinke, at the old Union Building on the D.U. campus. He was a journalism major, a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity and a basketball player. She was also a journalism major, one of the first women editors of the Clarion, the D.U. School newspaper, and a member of the Pi Beta Phi sorority.
Upon graduation, Doris took a job with the Englewood Times Herald as a reporter.
She married Gene at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral in Denver on September 14, 1949. After their honeymoon in Lake Tahoe and San Francisco, they settled in Pasadena, California for a year while Gene took training in mortuary science to qualify for a job back in Denver with Olinger’s Mortuary.
Shortly after relocating back to Denver they moved into a basement apartment and had their first child Sharon late in 1950. Then it was a move to a duplex they shared with Doris’ mom and dad. It was one block north of Washington Park and it was time to expand their family.
They lived there for a few more years and had three more children, David, Richard and Diane. Soon they needed more room for their growing family and moved to a larger home near Alameda and Williams where they had two more children, Linda and Susan.
All six children attended St. Francis de Sales Catholic School and all of them went on to graduate from different colleges.
Although not Catholic herself, Doris and Gene raised all of the kids in the Catholic faith and attended Sunday mass religiously. Then in 1968, she converted to Catholicism. Her faithful devotion to her Catholic faith became an example and inspiration for her children. Her reverence was profound.
Her selflessness extended beyond her family through her volunteer efforts with the Catholic Church and organizations such as Hospice of Peace, Knights of Columbus, Easter Seals, Kiwanis, Pi Beta Phi, Mortar Board, D.U.’s foreign exchange student program, the D.U. Alumni Association, and most notably at Colorado University Hospital, with over 2,400 hours of volunteer service. She was neither pretentious nor sought attention to herself, yet her grace and class was admired and emulated by others.
Doris enjoyed reading, fishing, gardening and Scrabble with friends and family. She was a creative cook, seamstress, Colorado Rockies fan and kept a very large far-flung family together. She was especially proud of knowing where all of her family was at any given time and always remembered birthdays and anniversaries of all her children and grandchildren.
She loved clipping relevant articles from her beloved Denver Post and sending them to her kids and acquaintances, a sign she was engaged and interested in each child’s life. She was always “in the know” and was up to date on world affairs and current trends. She was as comfortable dancing the fox trot as she was dancing hip-hop at the grand kids’ weddings.
Doris was great at math - counting heads and accounting for friends - and then subtracting for the children busy at activities to come up with just the right number of food and mouths to feed for any given meal; and if a friend dropped in, she would add a place for them.
The house was always a beehive of activity. Foreign exchange students from the University of Denver were welcomed with open arms. They would stay in our home for several days as an integral part of their program. These students from China, Germany, India, Nigeria and other countries exposed the kids to different customs, religions and racial diversity. Many of these students became lifelong friends and reciprocated the hospitality when Gene and Doris travelled internationally.
The Williams Street home was where kids came home from school, brought boyfriends and girlfriends to meet the parents and the place where nighttime basketball and parties on the patio with a driveway full of cars was the norm. Doris would always join in for a game of HORSE and cheer the loudest for the kids no matter what the sport was. Later, home was where all the big holidays and events happened. It was home base in the truest sense of the phrase.
They later moved to a home on Pontiac Street near Bible Park where the family continued to gather for over twenty years. After Gene’s death, Doris lived at Brookdale University Park Retirement Community - she wanted to stay in south Denver - and most recently at the Manor on Marston Lake in Littleton.
She was a transportation guru taking six kids to various events ranging from cheerleading practice or a slumber party, to a variety of sporting events including the infamous “Dust Bowl,” a favored practice field for St. Francis de Sales sports teams. Her Ford Country Squire station wagon crisscrossed south Denver many times over from the University of Denver swim lessons to Garland Park to the tennis courts at Washington Park.
She helped facilitate epic Sunday nights in front of the old console television featuring “Malts and Donuts” or “Popcorn and Duffys.” Ed Sullivan, Candid Camera and To Tell the Truth were Sunday night “must see TV.”
She traveled with Gene to the Holy Land, Rome, Germany, Mexico, Alaska, Hawaii and countless trips to Kansas, Ohio and California to visit family and friends.
And there were a few classic road trips with some or all of the kids to conventions for the Knights of Columbus and Kiwanis International. This was classic Americana travelling in a Ford station wagon staying with family and friends along the way and an occasional Holiday Inn – with a pool for the kids after a long day drive. Doris planned all these trips. Her Rand McNally Road Atlas and Car Bingo were constant companions and she knew every Crocodile Farm, Dinosaur Park, Stuckey’s and Howard Johnsons in America to provide a respite for our 400-500 mile driving days.
Doris was a true Colorado Rockies fan and season ticket holder since their inception. There is a commemorative brick right near the home plate entrance that reads “The Steinke Family – God, Family, Baseball” and the family always teases that it’s not always necessarily in that order. If you walk down Section 137 from the concourse to the dugout, a center rail will steady your walk – encouraged by Doris to Rockies management every year for the past dozen seasons – finally installed for everyone’s safety.
Doris and Gene – and later just Doris, never missed a graduation at any academic level or a wedding or an anniversary or a baptism – no matter when or where it occurred. It would not be an exaggeration that they went to well over 1,000 sporting and extracurricular events for their kids and extended family.
Doris lived a very blessed life and gave much more than she received. She will be so missed by her family.
Inspired and survived by a sister, six children, fifteen grandchildren and eight great grandchildren.
Nancy McBride (sister) - Children: Doug and Priya McBride - Children: Diya;
Cheryl and Steve Dunlop - Children: Kailyn, Rowan.
Sharon and Patrick Kane - Children: Kevin and Allison Kane - Children: Everett, Madeleine; Chris Kane and Nicole Dieso; Megan.
David Steinke and Sue Robinson – Children: Erin Steinke.
Richard Steinke - Children: Sarah and Michael Portnov - Children: Alina and Stas; Kyle and Scott Hartwyk - Children: Maxwell, Hugo; Lauren and Steve Brady.
Diane and Tom Matway - Children: Beck, Bryce.
Linda and Devin Monasmith - Children: Colton; Jamie and Reiner Lueck - Children: Elena, Annelie; Lindsay.
Susan and Rick Schmitz - Children: Mallory (Charlie) Ryan, Jack.
Please contact the family for complete funeral mass details as space is limited.
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