Widener-Parr family's memorial today
The Rocky
Published February 29, 2008 at 10:17 a.m.
Updated February 29, 2008 at 1:19 p.m.
Photo by Chris Schneider © The Rocky
Katy Parr, 18, stands with the audience during a song by the Flobots at a memorial service for her parents and sister, Sandra Widener, John Parr and Chase Parr, who were killed in a car accident on Dec. 22.
Photo by The Rocky
A choir sings during the memorial service for Sandra Widener, John Parr, and their daughter Chase Parr, at the Buell Theater at the Denver Performing Arts Complex.
Photo by Courtesy of Katy Tartakoff, copyright 2006
The Parr family, taken in 2006. Sandy Widener, top, John Parr, bottom, and their daughters Katy Parr, left, and Chase Parr, at right. Sandy, John and Chase were killed in a car accident in Wyoming on Saturday while the family was driving up to visit Sandy's family in Boise. Katy Parr survived.
A memorial service is honoring three members of a Denver family who died in a horrific car accident just before Christmas.
Services for Sandra Widener, John Parr and Chase Parr began at 1 p.m. in the Buell Theater at the Denver Performing Arts Complex, 14th and Curtis streets.
A reception will follow in the Buell lobby.
John Parr was a civic activist who worked with governors and grassroots community groups. He was one of the leaders of the grassroots movement to stop the 1976 Winter Olympics from coming to Denver.
Later, John Parr was president of the National Civic League and co-founded the non-profit Civic Results.
Sandra Widener, his wife, co-founded Westword, an alternative weekly based in Denver. She also was a reporter at Newsday and The Denver Post.
Their daughter, Chase, 19, was a graduate of Denver East High School and a sophomore at Wesleyan University.
They are survived by 18-year-old Katy Parr, a senior at East, who was injured in the car crash that happened six miles west of Rawlins, Wyo., on I-80.
Memorial funds have been set up at the Denver Foundation, the Downtown Denver Partnership, the Denver Community Leadership Forum and the Cornell Daily Sun. An online memorial website has been established at JohnsAndyChase.muchloved.com
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