We are sad to report that long-time member Virginia Culver-Snyder has died. In her 44 years at the Denver Post, she covered religion and wrote obituaries, yet on the matter of her own mortality remained intensely private. She was 84, if you must know.

Culver grew up in Eads. She studied journalism at the University of Colorado before going to work for the Lamar Daily News. In 1967, she landed a job at the Denver Post, where she met John Snyder, whom she married the next year. He died four years later.

Culver reported on how religion responded to abortion and feminism. She wrote about cultists and faith healers, the rise of megachurches and televangelist money and sex scandals. She covered Pope John Paul II’s 1993 visit to Colorado for World Youth Day, even flying here from Rome with the pontiff. She chronicled the emergence of female and LGBTQ clergy and debates over civil unions between same-sex couples. She covered anti-semitism in the aftermath of Denver radio host Alan Berg’s killing in 1984, and Islamophobia following the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Virginia’s family and friends will gather later this fall to celebrate her life and legacy over dark chocolate and red wine with ice cubes, her favorites.

This is an abbreviated obituary; click here for the full story if you have a Denver Post subscription.