Doreen O'Haver

August 30th, 1933 - April 8th, 2025

Joy Doreen Williams was born on August 30th, 1933 in Denver, Colorado. For someone so perennially ebullient, the moniker “Joy” was a bit too on the nose: she always used her middle name. Doreen’s early years were spent in Denver and Bailey during the Great Depression. It was a tough time to be a kid. In response to the hardship around her, she crafted an attitude of fierce optimism and gratitude that she carried all of her life. Stories from her childhood depict a Colorado that doesn’t exist anymore: roller skating down 6th avenue, hopping on the cable car system that snaked around metro Denver, and riding her bicycle with her pet chicken riding copilot on the handlebars. 

Doreen’s parents owned a bar in Bailey for most of her childhood, and she always attributed her gift of gab to growing up in a public space with strangers coming and going. She moved through life making friends with any and everyone who crossed her path. In the 1950’s her family moved to Salida and opened a new enterprise, the Atomic Bar. When Salida local Tom O’Haver returned from serving in the Air Force in 1954, he immediately took notice of the gregarious redhead. Tom approached her outside her family’s bar one summer afternoon on her break, offered her a popsicle as he proposed a date, and the rest was history. They married in 1956 and had many adventures together, including three children. His nickname for her was Scarlet, and Doreen would reminisce about his long eyelashes long after Tom passed away in 2008.

Doreen was a joyful host and celebrationist who always had a glass jug of Carlo Rossi ready to share with guests, and a “simply darling” outfit on. She had a soft spot for dejected cats and mean spirited chihuahuas, and she loved talking politics, wearing red, telling stories, and skiing. 

Doreen wasn’t perfect. She was a bit of a neat freak, had a flair for the dramatic, and she was known to embellish stories to improve the punchline. She made up for these minor flaws by delivering an endless stream of quips, jokes, and compliments. She was the life of the party, and everyone’s biggest fan. She reminded us constantly to always be grateful for what you have, to never take yourself too seriously, that matching your shoes and a handbag is the quickest way to a fashion forward moment, and that the easiest way to start a conversation with a stranger is to give them a compliment. She would (very) often proclaim, in moments of joy and gratitude, that she was a “lucky duck,” and she had a duck tattooed on her arm to commemorate this catchphrase at the age of 89.

Doreen lived most of her adult life in Arvada and the Sloans Lake and Lowry neighborhoods of Denver. In every place she lived she built a durable community with her neighbors. She passed on with a huge group of adoring family at her side on April 8th, 2025. She was 91. 

Doreen left behind three adult kids, Tam O’Neill (O’Haver), Thom O’Haver, and Todd O’Haver; two kids-in-law, Patrick O’Neill and Sarah O’Haver (Patterson); two grandkids, Hannah O’Neill and Ash O’Haver; three great nieces/nephews, Emily Nozawa (Webster), Miles Webster, and Maddie Ashour (Webster); and their respective families: Teo, Randy, Rosie, Teddy, Alexis, and Kal. Every morning she wrote each of our names in a gratitude journal. Turns out, we were the lucky ones. 

In death, Doreen is reunited with some of her favorite people: her grandmother Gussie, her husband Tom, her aunt Veva, and a small army of deranged cats and chihuahuas. Those who remain raise a glass of Carlo Rossi and remember our favorite redhead racing down the biggest hill in Bailey on her bicycle. Go, Doreen, go! 

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A celebration of life will be held in May of 2025 - please contact the family for details.