Native Nevadan Bunker dies at 80

Friday, June 22, 2001 | 10:14 a.m.

When former Sen. Berkeley Bunker, D-Nev., died on his wife Della's 78th birthday and the couple's 10th wedding anniversary two years ago, she stepped up and delivered the speech he had planned for that night at the dedication of the Berkeley Bunker Elementary School.

"My mother, who was widowed three times, always told me marriage is a commitment you make for the long haul -- you take the good and the bad," Della Bunker told the Sun before the speech.

Della Lee Richards Bunker was laid to rest Thursday in Bunkers' Edenvale Mausoleum beside Berkeley Bunker and her first husband, Charles Lee Richards.

Bunker, a native Nevadan and longtime Clark County School District teacher, writer and publicity director for community organizations, died June 16 at a local hospital. She was 80.

The announcement of her death was not made until Thursday, the day of her private funeral.

Berkeley Bunker, the first Las Vegan to serve as a U.S. senator from Nevada and a longtime local businessman who co-founded Bunker Mortuary, died on Jan. 21, 1999, at age 92, making Della a widow for the second time.

She had married Berkeley in 1989, a year after his first wife and high school sweetheart, Lucile, died after 56 years of marriage.

Della Bunker was active in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as a past president and counselor of the Young Women's programs and as an original ordinance worker for the Las Vegas Temple.

Born Della Lee on Jan. 21, 1921, in Panaca, she earned a bachelor's degree at the University of Nevada and later earned a master's degree in administration.

Bunker is survived by a daughter, Sharla Rae Humphrey of Las Vegas; a brother, James Irvin Lee of Panaca; three sisters, Vivianne Woodbury of Las Vegas, Florence Myles of Denver and Orel Kay Allen of Logan, Utah; nine grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.