Obituary: Harvella Jewell Bewley

Harvella Jewell Bewley, age 86, formerly of Meeker, passed away Friday, April 24, 2009, at the Paonia Care Center in Paonia, Colo.
Jewell was born in Meeker on May 1, 1922, daughter of Morton Giles and Katherine (Kracht) Butler. Her parents and grandparents, George Elmer and Maude Laura Butler, worked on various area ranches in the early 1900s. Her grandparents eventually proved up on a homestead near Trapper’s Lake and when Jewell was a small child her parents joined them in a sawmill business, providing logs for homes in Meeker. After selling the homestead property to the 101 Club, the family moved the sawmill to Burro Mountain before later returning to ranching. After Morton’s death, Jewell’s mother, Katherine, worked for many years at Oldland and Co.
Jewell was graduated from Meeker High School in 1940. She earned her bachelor’s degree in education from Western State College in Gunnison, Colo., and her master’s degree from Northern Arizona in Flagstaff, Ariz. She married Henry “Hank” Wilson from Meeker and they had three children, Gail, Joan and Michael. She later married Robert “Bob” Hughes of Meeker and then Herb Bewley.
Jewell will be remembered as an elementary teacher who inspired children to do better and be better than they ever thought they could be.
When she asked her students to write stories about their lives, she joined them by writing about her childhood in the Meeker area. Her family treasures those stories. Jewell was a “horse whisperer” who loved all horses.
She raised all breeds through the years. Over the last six years before residing at the Paonia Care Center she lived with her daughter Gail and husband Roger Morris in Olathe, Colo., where she enjoyed the horses in the pasture next to their home.
Jewell is survived by her daughters, Gail Wilson (Roger) Morris of Olathe and Joan Wilson Story of Lyons; granddaughter Michelle Page (Brent) Alm and great-grandson Jasper Page Alm of Eagle; granddaughter Jennifer Morris and great-grandchildren Kayla and Krystina Morris and Derek Malonson of Westminster, grandson Geoff Morris and grandchildren Nichole and John Morris of Kapaa, Hawaii, grandson Gred (Liddia) Morris and grandchildren Melia, Tianna and Joseph Morris of Highlands Ranch, cousins include Jean (Gibson) Wooley of Ripon, Wis., and Mary (Kracht) Sifers of Colona, Billy Kracht of Meeker, Dorothy (Kracht) Archer of Phoenix, Betty (Kracht) Cott of Meeker, Gerald Wilber of Meeker, Mary Ann Wilber of Meeker, Sarah Ellen Wilber of Chandler, Ariz., and Pauline Wilber and daughter Anna Stehle of Denver.
Jewell was preceded in death by her brother George Morton Butler, sister Kathryn Butler Sullivan Christensen, her husbands, her son Michael Wilson and her grandson Brian Page.
A family service at the Butler Sawmill location on Burro Mountain is planned for May 15.
Memorial contributions may be sent to Paonia Care Center, 1625 Meadowlark Blvd., Paonia CO 81428, where she received the most loving care.