Longtime cancer support group activist Dutchover dies

Friday, Aug. 22, 2003 | 10:35 a.m.

Mary Ann Dutchover, who battled breast cancer for more than a dozen years and made helping other people affected by the disease one of her many causes, died Tuesday in Las Vegas at age 56.

Dutchover worked with Reach to Recovery, an organization that helps families dealing with cancer. She was also involved in the Mastectomy Association Support Group.

The Susan G. Koman Foundation found Dutchover's aid invaluable, as she assisted that organization's work at Lake Mead Hospital and Nellis Air Force Base.

She also helped cancer patients and their families during treatment at University Medical Center.

"She was so extremely, extraordinarily kind," Dutchover's friend Evie Kinney said.

In addition to her work with cancer patients, Dutchover volunteered at the Blind Center, helping clients with ceramics projects.

Dutchover also was an advocate for Hispanics and the elderly.

She was one of five Southern Nevada women to receive a Woman's Role Model Award from then-Attorney General Frankie Sue Del Papa in 2000.

Dutchover found out she had breast cancer in 1990, becoming the third of three sisters to be diagnosed with the disease within a two-year period. Her younger sister, Elidia, lost her battle with cancer after a seven-year fight. Both Dutchover and her sister Tomasa had recurrences of the disease in 1994.

During a National Cancer Survivors Day ceremony in 1996, President Bill Clinton sent a special message to Dutchover and other survivors at Nellis Air Force Base.

"Your bravery and dedication are deepening our faith in the strength of the human spirit, allowing America to look toward the future with hope," Clinton wrote.

Dutchover wrote a poem for the occasion: "I am as much a part of America as America is a part of me. I am the voice of America, the molder of truth, the sieve which sifts rights from wrongs. I am the product of the past and the seed of tomorrow."

Born Jan. 4, 1947, in Alpine, Texas, Dutchover had lived in Las Vegas for 24 years. She worked as a civil service employee at Nellis Air Force Base.

She is survived by her husband, Ruben Dutchover of Las Vegas; her daughter, Deborah Schoewe, stationed at Osan Air Base, South Korea; her son, Eddie Dutchover of Las Vegas, who received a Governor's Achievement Award for Outstanding Performance and Dedication for his commitment to fight against drugs; her brother, Leocaurdio Portillo of Alpine; her sisters, Eva Portillo of Midland, Texas, and Angie Portillo of Odessa, Texas; and four grandchildren.

No local services are scheduled. A rosary prayer vigil was scheduled to be held today in Alpine. Mass is scheduled Saturday in Alpine, followed by burial in Fort Davis, Texas.