The matriarch of one of Pahrump’s founding and most recognizable families has died.
Irene Wulfenstein passed away on Saturday at her Pahrump home from complications from cancer. She was 76.
Daughter Cindy Colucci said her mother passed away late Saturday evening, comforted by the fact that many of her family members were at her bedside during Irene’s final hours.
“It was very sweet because it was the day before my sister’s anniversary and the day before my new son-in-law’s birthday,” she said. “She was able to give them their days. The family was all around and it was a beautiful, sweet, gracious passing. I just know her soul was there comforting all of us.”
Wulfenstein moved with her husband, Ray, to Pahrump in 1972, where the couple started a small motel business when state Route 160 was nothing more than a lonely deserted road in the middle of nowhere.
“We started development out here in 1971, and moved here in 1972 with the dream and goal of building an RV park, a motel, and a car wash,” Ray Wulfenstein told the Times in July 2013 after selling his popular sports bar Wulfy’s located on state Route 160.
The establishment is now known as Draft Picks.
Ray Wulfenstein recalled that during the first couple of years, there were many times where they were lucky to have at least one guest staying at the motel.
“When we first opened it, Irene and I would sit up here sometimes till 11 o’ clock at night and close it down without ever renting a room,” he said. “This was the deadest street in the world, but we just held on. It was a highway and we wanted to live in a rural area and raise our kids. She was with me every step of the way. We chose Pahrump just because we liked it. We moved from Vegas to here in ’72.”
Though Pahrump at the time was virtually desolate in the early 1970s, the Wulfensteins were certainly not alone in the valley.
Longtime resident and real estate developer Tim Hafen’s family was well established in the Pahrump Valley for several decades prior to the Wulfenstein’s arrival, but the families eventually became quite close after time.
It was just a few weeks ago when Hafen said he last spoke to Ray Wulfenstein, but he hadn’t spoken to Irene in several months.
“She was a very sophisticated and very great lady and a great singer,” Hafen recalled on Tuesday. “She raised one of the great families in the valley. They were great valley residents.”
Additionally, Hafen said the Wulfenstein family contributed many years of their time in Pahrump to help make the town what it is today, when compared to the early 1970s.
“They were devoted to the valley, built the valley, spent their money and built a great construction company and a great commercial center,” he recalled. “These are the kind of people that helped to build Pahrump. People here should not forget that Wulfenstein Construction contributed to a very large measure in building the school’s athletic fields and that a real tribute to the family, that they would do something like that. ”
After selling Wulfy’s, the Wulfensteins had planned to enjoy retirement. At the time, he was unaware he would have just over a year together with Irene.
“We did a lot work over the years and we’ve accomplished that,” he said at that time. “Now the new goal is to retire and enjoy it.”
Wulfenstein was born Irene Eriksson in Stamford, Connecticut on Dec. 15, 1938. She graduated from Rancho High School in North Las Vegas, and married Ray Wulfenstein on Aug. 2, 1957 at the St. George Temple – Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Colucci said her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer in the late 1990s and battled the disease until it went into remission after undergoing radiation treatments.
The cancer returned nearly two years ago.
“In 2010, it reappeared in a different area and they treated it, but they found another lump in 2013,” Colucci said.
Wulfenstein underwent the radiation therapy on the first two diagnoses.
Doctors opted for chemotherapy treatments on the third diagnosis, which according to Colucci, the cancer once again took hold.
Additionally, she said cancer does not run through her family.
“It pretty much just wouldn’t let go of her no matter what,” she said. “The cancer actually grew during chemotherapy.”
Colucci, meanwhile, said her parents had planned to spend the Christmas holiday at their other home in Oregon, but those hopes were dashed when her mother’s conditioned worsened in recent weeks.
“Mom and dad were supposed to spend Christmas up there, but suddenly it just caught up with her,” Colucci said. “She was very, very ill for many weeks but she persevered through and enjoyed her family and friends through the discomfort.”
Roughly four weeks ago, the family visited Disneyland for the final time with Irene.
“We were riding Thunder Mountain four and a half weeks ago,” Colucci said. “She was suffering, but she would not let you know it.”
There will be a public viewing Friday at 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Mormon church, 921 East Wilson Road, with the funeral at 10 a.m. on Saturday. She is survived by her husband Ray; four children Jim, Steve, Cindy and Judy; 15 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.