One of Victor’s colorful characters, Teresa (Tarie) Huber left a legacy of stability, commitment to home and a love of adventure.

Huber died of natural causes June 30 at the Cripple Creek Care Center. She was 85.

Born in Victor on June 1, 1936, Huber was proud of her Irish roots. In a video filmed for the Victor Heritage Society, she highlighted her ancestry and the family’s eventual trek to Victor.

Her great grandmother, Catherine Mary Byron, emigrated from Ireland and met her great grandfather, Charles Francis Mclaughin, in New York.

By the time the family moved to Victor in the late 1890s, the family tradition of working in the mines began with her great grandfather, followed by her father and now her son, Matt.

Mary Bielz was a friend through all those years in Victor.

“We were two Catholic girls connected by our backgrounds,” she said. “We shared a lot — love for cooking, history and good stories.”

Some of the stories about Huber most often include her culinary skills. “She made the best pancakes in the district,” Bielz said. “She said there was a difference between pancakes and flapjacks.”

A lifelong member of St. Victor’s Catholic Church, Huber was baptized, made her First Communion and had her marriage to Jeane Huber blessed at the church.

“St. Victors was the spiritual home, the sacramental life that nurtured Tarie and her family in joy and suffering, poverty and abundance, and in sickness and in health,”

Bielz said.

Without a college degree, Huber worked her way up in the county assessor’s office as well as the county clerk’s office.

“She was smart and did a little bit of everything,” said Matt Huber, her son.

Matt chuckles when he thinks of his childhood in Victor. Matt was one of four boys who were sometimes rowdy. But his mother was strict, he said. “Oh, yeah!” he said. “There was never a dull moment in our house.”

At various times, his mother worked in cafes in town and cooked lunches for the grade school in Victor. “I’m going to miss her cooking,” Matt said.

After she retired, Huber traveled around the world with her cousin, who was a flight attendant. “She went to Ireland, Russia and Rome,” he said. “She said some places in Europe reminded her of her childhood.”

Announcing Huber’s death at the county commissioners meeting July 15, Teller County Clerk and Recorder Krystal Brown was emotional.

“She was like a grandmother to me,” Brown said.

Huber’s celebration of life is at 11 a.m. July 31 at St. Victor’s Church, followed by a luncheon hosted by the Friends of St. Victor’s.

Huber is survived by her sons Matt, Mike and Dan, two grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

She is preceded in death by her husband, Jeane Huber, in 1987 and son Mark Huber in 1996.

Huber died of natural causes June 30 at the Cripple Creek Care Center. She was 85.