Trinidad obituary recalls Barbara Zebill's lifelong family ties and career

Barbara “Auntie Barb Renner” Zebill’s life traced the kind of family map Trinidad still recognizes at a glance. Born Jan. 28, 1943, in Trinidad to Peter and Cora (Aleman) Renner Chavez, she graduated from Trinidad High School with the class of 1960 and remained tied to the town that raised her.

Her work took her far from Las Animas County, but never erased those roots. Zebill worked as a stenographer for the FBI in Washington, D.C., Las Vegas and Denver, then later became office manager for Fleishman-Hillard in Kansas City. She also worked as a Branch Office Assistant for Edward Jones Investments in Mulvane, Kansas, and in Cañon City, keeping a career record that stretched across several states while still pointing back to southern Colorado.

The obituary also places her in the center of a long marriage and a steady church life. Barbara and Roger Zebill were married for 43 years, and after Roger retired, the couple moved to Florence, where she was active in her church. It was a quieter portrait, built less on public milestones than on the daily connections that often define a well-known Trinidad family.

That kind of remembrance carries particular weight in Trinidad and across Las Animas County. The city’s population was 8,329 in the 2020 Census and an estimated 8,183 in July 2024, small enough that school class, family name and church affiliation can still anchor local memory. Las Animas County itself was established in 1866 and covers about 4,772.9 square miles, the largest county in Colorado by area.

Trinidad’s history also helps explain why notices like Zebill’s resonate so widely. The city flourished as a coal-industry center in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and southern Colorado’s coalfields, including Las Animas County, were shaped by the United Mine Workers of America and the turmoil that led to the 1913 strike, the Ludlow Massacre and the Coalfield Wars. In that setting, a Trinidad-born woman who worked in federal offices, lived in a cabin in Rosita and stayed active in church after moving to Florence becomes more than a name in a notice. She becomes part of the county’s living memory.