Dorothy (Dokes) Kobey Berry Papers

Dorothy "Dokes" Berry (nee Kobey) was born in Aspen, Colorado in 1905 to Harris and Leah Sheffel Kobey. During Berry's childhood Aspen's primary industry was mining and very few Jewish families lived in the town. Her father and his brothers were businessmen who owned and operated apparel stores in Aspen, including the Kobey Shoe and Clothing Company. After she graduated from Aspen High School, Dorothy Kobey taught at a county school in Cow Creek, Colorado, outside Steamboat Springs. She moved to Denver, Colorado with her siblings in 1924 to attend the University of Denver after receiving a scholarship to the school. In 1927 she married Nathan Berry, a salesman who worked at her uncle's downtown Denver business, the Kobey Shoe Store. The papers document Jewish family life in Aspen, Colorado during the early 1900s. The papers contain newspaper and magazine articles, 1 photographic print, family tree charts and a CD-ROM that contains digitized photographs and digitized printed materials, including U.S. census records. The Dorothy (Dokes) Kobey Berry Papers document the growth of businesses in Colorado mountain towns and Jewish social life and customs in Aspen, Colorado during the early 1900s. The Kobey families were among the dozen or so Jewish families in the close-knit mining town of Aspen when Dokes Kobey was growing up. This collection documents Jewish family life, with an emphasis on the lives of Jewish women, in Aspen, Colorado in the early 1900s. Dokes Kobey Berry died in Denver on February 24, 2009.