Yvonne "Lovie" Stoeber

Yvonne was born into a large family, the last of 10 children to parents, Howard and Myrtle Bakes. To her family, she was Lovie. She was devoted to them, and relished sharing entertaining stories about them from her childhood. She had a strong connection with most of her siblings, and there was always lively chatter when they got together to visit, usually around food. Her siblings all preceded her in death, but Yvonne was survived by a host of nieces and nephews and their offspring. Due to her wit, humor and honest opinions, she was everyone’s favorite.

While Yvonne was raised Catholic, in 1987 she attended a Billy Graham crusade in Denver where she went forward and made a new commitment to say yes to God’s gift of salvation through Jesus and live a life committed to Him. She took this very seriously and the event was impactful to her life.

A lover of animals, she rescued cats from the shelters and strays off the street. At one time Yvonne had as many as six cats and a dog. The birds in her neighborhood also benefited from her generosity as she fed bird seed to a multitude of pigeons and sparrows. The squirrels too would come up to her on her porch for their daily helping of peanuts.

Each year she planted numerous pots of red salvias, geraniums and colorful petunias to arrange all around her yard and front porch. As she was outside watering the flowers and lawn, and feeding the animals, she loved to visit with her neighbors. She wanted to know all about their lives and share her stories with them. Many of them became her good friends and she even shared one of her cats with a neighbor. Moma cat would be next door, getting spoiled during the day then return home in the evening to her furry family.

Yvonne lived in Denver for most of her life and had a vast knowledge of Denver’s past, which she enjoyed sharing with anyone who would listen. An avid reader, she loved a good murder mystery. She also enjoyed the Colorado mountains, going on drives and watching and listening to the elk bugling in the fall colors.

She worked at Information Handling Services (IHS) for 20 years, working her way up the ranks to manager. Yvonne was fiercely loyal to her employees, and good workers were always rewarded. Every year she organized a huge Christmas party for the Bayaud workers from Fort Logan who did off-site work for IHS. She made sure that the festive event included lots of food and everyone received presents, which she procured in her own time and sometimes with even her own money.

Yvonne met Brenda at IHS and they became good friends. Since Yvonne never had any children, Brenda eventually became a surrogate daughter and cared for her the last years of her life. A lot of their time together was spent eating out and having meals together. On many holidays she went to Brenda’s house for the celebratory feast. Yvonne loved to go out to eat and loved breakfast, a juicy hamburger or on special occasions breaded shrimp. As Yvonne was leaving a restaurant, she was drawn to any baby or young child in the area and just had to stop and say hi and tell the leery parents how lovely their child was and pat it on the head.

Christmas was her favorite holiday and she celebrated with passion. Her house became a festive abode where even the stuffed bears, which she loved to collect, were adorned in Christmas attire. She enjoyed admiring her Christmas tree, and spent hours getting it just right, rearranging the decorations until it was perfect. The tree often was left up for months and on occasion, was still in all its full splendor when the next Christmas arrived.

Another love of Yvonne’s was the art of Vincent Van Gogh. She had numerous prints of his work decorating the walls of her home. She knew all about his life from reading multiple books and watching documentaries and movies. She excitedly attended any exhibit that she could, which included his work.

Yvonne “Lovie” Stoeber was a force of nature; she was loyal, opinionated and very kind. At the age of 89, she passed peacefully to heaven with Brenda by her side. She will be greatly missed by all that knew her.

In lieu of flowers, please give a donation in her name to one of your local animal shelters.