Barbara Bach
Barbara Bach, 82, passed away on Dec. 30, 2021. A service was held Jan. 3, 2022 at Feldman Mortuary Chapel, with interment at Mt. Nebo Memorial Park. Cantor Elizabeth Sacks officiated.
Mrs. Bach, nicknamed ‘Barbi,’ was born in Denver on Sept. 2, 1939. She attended East High and then Connecticut College. Mrs. Bach then transferred to CU Boulder, where she majored in Russian history and was a member of the Alpha Epsilon Phi sorority.
In 1962, Mrs. Bach met William Bach. They were married that year, and were married for nearly 55 years before Mr. Bach’s passing in 2017. The family said the couple’s life together started with “Billy’s” proposal with an engagement ring in an egg roll, and “they never looked back.”
Mrs. Bach was once a teacher at George Washington High School. She was also a legal assistant at Bach Family Law, a real estate agent and shop owner of Antiques & Artisans.
“As a working mother she always made sure that dinner was on the table so the family could eat and laugh together every evening,” Mrs. Bach’s family said. “She was a resolute champion of her family; she supported and loved each of her children unconditionally.”
Mrs. Bach is survived by her children David (Laura) Bach, Amy (Stephen) Volin and Lisa (Karen Verpeet) Bach; and six grandchildren.
The family says a celebration of Mrs. Bach’s life will be held later in 2022.
Donations can be made to Mental Health Colorado or Autism Speaks.
Sally Steele Metzger
Sally Steele Metzger, 92, widely known in the Denver Jewish community for her long career at Rose Medical Center, her career as a performer and her community activism, passed away peacefully on Dec. 29, 2021, surrounded by her children.
A memorial service took place Dec. 31 at Feldman Mortuary, conducted by Rabbi Steven Kaye, followed by a private burial at Mount Nebo Cemetery
A Denver native, Mrs. Metzger was the daughter of Morris and Florence Price. She graduated from North High School and the University of Denver. During her DU years, from 1948-51, she worked at the Intermountain Jewish News as a feature and society writer, under the supervision of Max Goldberg and Bob Gamzey, who became longtime personal friends.
After living for a few years in New York, Mrs. Metzger returned to Denver and was hired by Rose Medical Center in 1967, originally as director of women’s activities, eventually becoming the hospital’s public relations director.
At Rose, where she worked for 25 years, her skills as a people person made her the perfect position for the demanding position. Chris Leppek, IJN assistant editor, worked with Mrs. Metzger frequently and remembers her as “both a consummate professional, in terms of representing the hospital in its public relations and marketing, and a warm and accessible friend who perfectly understood the demands of newspaper production. It was never less than a pleasure to work with her.”
A major dimension of Mrs. Metzger’s life was as a singer and actress, playing leading roles in local productions over a span of decades. Her first show was at the Green Spider, a beatnik coffee house in Denver’s Uptown district, in which she shared the stage with Jonathan Parker, the father of Denver dance maven Cleo Parker Robinson.
She would later star in such musicals as “Pajama Game,” “Guys and Dolls,” “Pal Joey,” “Carnival” and “Fiddler on the Roof” at Denver’s famed Bonfils Theater and the Third Eye Theater. She loved to sing and entertain, and family and friends will always remember her renditions of “A Bushel and a Peck” and “Sunrise, Sunset.”
In her last interview with the IJN in 2013, at the age of 83, Mrs. Metzger discussed retiring from her acting activities, and readily displayed her omnipresent wit.
“What part would I play? ‘A Little Night Music’ has a part for a grandmother but she doesn’t have a good song,” she said with a laugh. “And I always want to be the leading lady.”
Her attributes as a people person also served her well in her many community activities, which included the American Jewish Committee, Jewish Family Service and NCJW. Always skilled at marketing, she came up with the names of events that were used for years, including RMC’s Rose Celebration and JFS Reel Hope.
Mrs. Metzger was preceded in death by her second husband, Jerry Metzger, in 1995.
She is survived by children Shelley Steele Gaynes (Bruce) and Craig Steele (Nancy); grandchildren Carley Gaynes (Matthew Blass), Jonathan Gaynes, Melanie Gaynes, Dylan Steele (Camden Mobley) and Laura Steele (Michelle Collar); and her new great-grandchild Eleanor Collar Steele.
Donations can be made to the Sally Steele Metzger Passover Fund at the JFS food pantry or to the JFS fund of choice.
Seema Betz
Seema Betz, a founding employee of the City of Lakewood, passed away on Dec. 25, 2021. Mrs. Betz was 95. A service was held Dec. 29 at Feldman Mortuary Chapel, with Rabbi Steve Booth-Nadav officiating.
Mrs. Betz was born on June 6, 1926 in Burma (now Myanmar), to a prominent Sephardic Babylonian Jewish family. During the 1942 Japanese invasion of Burma, Mrs. Betz’s (Saul) family escaped to Calcutta, India.
While working for the US Army Air Force Base in Calcutta, she married Robert Mares of Taos, New Mexico in 1945, living in an adobe house without electricity, telephone and water or sewer services. Mail was delivered by horseback once a week. After Mr. Mares was discharged after his military service, the couple moved to Albuquerque and subsequently to Denver.
In 1959, Mrs. Betz became a single mother; she remarried in 1980 to Ray Betz, who preceded her in death.
Mrs. Betz worked at the Martin Marietta Titan Rocket engineering department, and later with the City of Lakewood.
Mrs. Betz is survived by children Ramona Cox, Ben Mares and Josephine Dean; and five grandchildren.
Deanna Simon
Deanna (Brady) Simon passed away Dec. 26, 2021. She was 83. A service was held Dec. 28 at Congregation Rodef Shalom, with interment at Mt. Nebo Cemetery, officiated by Rabbi Rachel Kobrin, Rabbi Steven Foster and Cantor Saul Rosenthal.
Born in Lincoln, Neb., Mrs. Simon graduated high school in Rock Island, Ill., and moved to Colorado when she was 19. In 1963, she married Jack Simon. Mr. Simon passed away in 1981.
Mrs. Simon was active in community events, including ORT, an organization that provided training to displaced persons and immigrants seeking a new life. The Simons were founding parents of the Denver Jewish Day School. She also was a member of Rodef Shalom.
“Deanna had strong opinions about politics and the world, and used her feet to march and her voice to promote these ideas,” her family said.
Mrs. Simon is survived by daughters Lorraine Simon of Washington DC, Mickie Simon of Washington, DC, and Shelly Simon of New York; sons-in-law Brian Schwalb and Josh Broitman; and five grandchildren.
Donations can be made to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum or the Colorado Ovarian Cancer Alliance.
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