Aldene born August 5, 1955 to Allan and Celia Rusk in Trinidad, CO. She spent her childhood as an only child in Trinidad- helping her father run his gas station and attending private school. Aldene was born and raised Catholic and continued to follow her faith throughout life- including working for various churches in the Denver area as a Business Manager and for the Archdiocese of Denver as an Internal Auditor- from which she retired in 2019. Aldene attended college and graduate school at the University of Northern Colorado where she also obtained her CPA license. Out of college, she started working for Gulf Oil and moved to Denver where she met her future husband Jeff while he was active military. They parted ways until 1984 when they reunited and married. Together they had 3 children- Kristin, Jeffrey Allen, and Erik. She was incredibly proud of four grandchildren who were the light of her life and would drop everything to be at activities and events for them. Aldene was active in the Beta Sigma Phi sorority chapter for many years and enjoyed her lifelong friendships with her sisters. She remained extremely close to childhood friends as well and would visit them often. She loved to visit her husband's family in Minnesota and having her "girl's days" with her nieces as well as visiting her family in Texas, Nevada, and California. Aldene and Jeff loved traveling in their RV and would hit the road as often as they could- either visiting friends and family or enjoying the road trip life. Aldene was an avid fan of music- particularly Patsy Cline and Elvis- she loved a good movie or dinner out with friends, shopping, her "bling" as she called it, and her soap operas (General Hospital being a favorite). You could often find her sporting her leopard print and heels as she enjoyed some tequila or whiskey with her girls. Aldene was diagnosed with Stage 4 Ovarian Cancer in 2010 and valiantly fought 2 reoccurrences of it- the last one battling for over 3 years- before she decided to be with our Lord.
She is survived by her husband, her children, her grandchildren, a sister, numerous nieces and nephews (as well as greats!), Sorority sisters, and lifelong friends.