Rosemary Fetter, née Rosemary Frances Guadagnoli, passed away on Sunday, September 22nd of this year, 2024. A fourth generation Coloradan, Rosemary was born in Denver on March 28th, 1944, to Joseph and Katherine Guadagnoli; she was their only child. By her own telling, she was a “city girl;” she was raised in Denver and lived and thrived in and around the greater Denver area for most of her life.

She graduated from St. Francis De Sales Catholic high school in 1962 where she was a part of both the student newspaper and the student office staff. She went on to attend University of Colorado Boulder, where she earned a BA in history, with an English literature minor in 1966. As a young woman, she enjoyed the music of Ricky Nelson and attended some of his concerts with her dear, lifelong friend, Kay Horner.

After graduation, she went into social work, which she did until the early 1980’s. She married Larrie Fetter, who she had dated in high school and reconnected with after finishing college, in 1968. She became the mother to their two sons, Mark in 1970, and Christopher in 1973. She and Larrie parted ways in 1982, and she went on to raise their boys as a single mom for the remainder of their childhoods.

Starting in the early 1980s, Rosemary worked at the Auraria Higher Education Center, serving as publications coordinator, and then as Director of Public Relations. While on campus, she went on to continue her academic work, studying journalism and history at Metropolitan State College and CU Denver. After retiring from Auraria she worked as a freelance writer and part time reporter.

A longtime member of the Denver Women’s Press Club, she won in-house writing awards for her nonfiction and commercial publications. An expert in Colorado history, she authored articles numbering in the hundreds and had five published books. Her articles and reviews have been published in a great number of regional publications, including The Denver Post, The Rocky Mountain News, Architecture and Design of the West, The University of Denver Magazine and many others. Her published books, “The First 100 Years”, “From Stage Trail to Light Rail”, “Climb Every Mountain”, “Rivets Scratch the Seats” and “Colorado’s Legendary Lovers” were all centered around Coloradan history.

Rosemary enjoyed film, theater, and entertainment, which were among the subjects of her numerous written works. She was politically active and proudly worked on the campaign for John Hickenlooper. She was passionate about her family, her Italian heritage, and being a grandmother to her two grandsons. Additionally, she was a great lover of cats, and she always had one or two to keep her company. Her wit was sparkling, and she loved games. She relished hearty discourse, and she had a delightful sense of humor.

She is missed dearly, and survived by her sons and daughters-in-law Mark & Janette Fetter and Chris & Tevya Fetter, and her cherished grandsons Kamryn Roper-Fetter and Dresdyn Fetter.

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