Judith Whitlock Obituary

Durango resident Judith Anne Whitlock died of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease Monday, Oct. 17, 2011, in Durango. She was 68.

Mrs. Whitlock was born to James Malcolm "Mike" and Elizabeth West Mitchell on May 4, 1943, in Hillsboro, Ore. She finished 11th grade in high school and had an IQ of 155, her family said.

Mrs. Whitlock held various jobs throughout her life.

She had "a keen interest in the sciences, which she read extensively about whenever she could," they said. "She did a great many creative things over her lifetime, from painting to sculpture, furniture making and restoring, macramé, knitting, doll making, and once, built a roof for a patio deck by herself."

In the mid-1960s, she married James Lawrence Whitlock in Detroit. She was widowed at the age of 30 and never remarried.

Mrs. Whitlock was a homemaker, artist and mother. Her passions were gardening, weaving, cooking, photography, sewing and reading. She had lived in Durango for the last 13 years.

"She was a self-taught woman in all of her interests," her family said. "Until her health declined, she always had a huge elaborate garden everywhere she lived. She had an unusual and unorthodox childhood and adult life after being widowed. She moved with her family to Mexico at the age of 8, and learned to speak and write Spanish as fluently as English. She was a free spirit in many ways, and as an adult, lived in Detroit, Los Angeles, New Mexico, Mexico and on the road with her three young children."

She is survived by her children, Jim Whitlock of Durango, Robert Whitlock of Phoenix and Marcia Whitlock of Grass Valley, Calif.; brother, David Mitchell, of Ojo Caliente, N.M.; half-brother, Star Muir, of Manassas, Va.; and one grandson.

A ceremony of life will be held in May 2012 in Durango.