Erva Claire Boulon Denham, known as “E.C.” to those who loved her, passed away quietly in her own bed, at home and with a smile on her face on April 15. She was 92 years old.
E.C. was born in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico, on May 12, 1917. She was the oldest of four children born to Erva Hartwell Boulon and Paul Alfred Boulon. As a child she spent many summers on St. John, at Trunk Bay, which her parents owned.
In 1943, E.C. met and married John Stanford Denham in Puerto Rico while he was working as a civilian for the Signal Corps building RADAR stations all through the Caribbean. John preceded his much loved wife in death as did her younger brothers, Paul Alfred Boulon Jr., Ralf Hartwell Boulon and John Frank Boulon, as well as her niece, Elizabeth Lee Stephenson.
E.C. was a highly intelligent and multi-talented woman. Besides having very good business sense, she was an artist, fashion designer and seamstress. She was almost always doing something with her hands, whether it was cooking another excellent meal, making porcelain dolls, sewing clothes, or silk-screening designs onto fabric. She was an amateur horticulturalist and knew a great deal about the flora of the Virgin Islands. She was a Girl Scout leader, and in the late 1950s, started the first Learn To Swim program for girls on St. John. Her sense of humor and love of life knew no bounds. She was fearless, honest, and rarely complained. But more than all of these things, her greatest joy came in being a wife to her husband and a mother to her daughters. There was hardly a day when she didn’t comment about how much she enjoyed her family.
E.C. is survived by her daughters: Erva August Denham, of St. Thomas, and Bish Denham Curtin of Texas; nieces: Frances Diaz of Puerto Rico, Eve Maskell of Massachusetts, and Ann Marie Sharp of St. Thomas; nephews: Rafe Boulon of St. John, and John Boulon of Florida; as well as great-nieces and nephews, and great-grand nieces and nephews.
She was dearly loved and will be sorelymissed. She leaves behind a legacy that will not soon fade away, as she passed on a great deal of wisdom to those of us who are left behind.
As she wished, her ashes, arranged by Davis Funeral Home, will be placed at sea by Carvel Rock near her husband and her mother.
A special memorial service is planned for a later date and will be announced.
Contributions may be made in her name to the Girl Scouts or the Elaine Ione Sprauve Library.
