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Audrey Dee (Frost) Benson was born September 5, 1935, in Kim. She passed away peacefully April 4, 2024, at Springs Ranch Memory Care Community in Colorado Springs. She was one of six children born to Hazel and Tim Frost.

Audrey had vivid memories of the ranch where her father trained and sold horses. Audrey learned to ride bareback and do some riding tricks growing up with her sister, Nimi Lee, and brothers, BT, Clyde, Joe, and Jim. 

When still in grade school, Audrey moved with her mother, sister, and younger brother, Jim, to Springfield. Audrey’s male siblings remained on the ranch, with Jim joining them before all the boys moved to Utah with their father. Times were tough and she missed her brothers. Her great aunt, Freda, was her center of support.

Audrey met Steve Benson one night after attending a basketball game, and the rest is a Benson legacy. They married January 13, 1951, and lived in the Two Buttes area where Stephenne Sue and Linda Louise were born. Later, the family moved to Satana, Kansas, where Steve worked in the carbon black plant. Stephen Scott and Russell Raymond were born during this time. 

The family moved in 1957 to Granada, where Steve and Audrey partnered with Junior and Betty Stuckey custom-combining from Oklahoma to Canada every spring and summer. Audrey and Betty followed the crew with six kids in the classic 1950’s station wagon. The two women prepared home-cooked meals, three meals per day, for 20 people in a small travel trailer. Stuckey’s are still cherished friends. 

In 1965, a flood in Granada left Audrey and Steve’s house in almost 5 feet of water. Strong and determined, Audrey picked up the pieces and moved the family, making a new home in a different house across town.

Audrey and Steve moved a couple of years later when they leased ground south of Flagler. Audrey stepped up again, driving the school bus and her children from her home 15 miles south of town to school, cooked for students and faculty, and then drove the return trip home. She cooked, canned, gardened, took the kids to 4-H meetings, all while instilling skills, work ethic, and determination in her kids. 

Five years later, Steve and Audrey purchased 1,250 acres ten miles north of Flagler, where they lived for 50 years. Their partnership revolved around hard work, a do-it-yourself attitude, and frugal spending. Audrey loved being a farm wife and mother. While Steve mostly managed the outdoor work, Audrey helped drive trucks, go to town for parts, and changing irrigation while she, also, managed the cooking, canning, cleaning, gardening, and raising chickens for eggs along with meat. 

Audrey, a self-taught cook, shared her passion and skills with others. In 1988, she was featured in Taste of Home as the “cook of the month;” an article was also included in the publisher’s annual Taste of the Country magazine. The article showcased recipes and images of Audrey’s cooking, which she shared at potlucks and dinners for family and friends. 

Audrey was an engaged member of the Rebecca’s, the Gingham Girls, and a volunteer at The Bargain Shop for many years.  She and husband, Steve, took pride in their Flagler community; were actively involved for numerous decades; they cut a beautiful swath across a dance floor together.

Audrey and Steve enjoyed their long-lasting card club, featuring players from ages 20 to 80, and they passed on a great love of cards to her children and grandchildren with lots of late-night contests creating fond memories for several generations. Until her memory failed her, Audrey spent countless hours following her Frost rodeo family on RFD TV. Audrey left a record of her life and love for her family in the many photo albums she put together over the years.

She is preceded in death by Steve, her husband of 68 years; grandchildren, Kimberly Benson and Brock Benson; and siblings, Nimi Lee, BT, Joe, and Jim.

Audrey leaves behind daughters, Sue Harding and husband Tom of Whitefish, Montana, and Linda Bamber-Olson and Karl of Olathe, Kansas; sons, Stephen Benson and wife Laura of Kit Carson, and Russ Benson and wife Deb of Joes; brother, Clyde and wife Elsie of Lane, Oklahoma.

Carrying on family traits and traditions are: grandchildren Stephen Duane Benson, Lisa and Shawn Shryock of Burlington, Joseph and Tammy Bamber of Nashville, Tennessee, John and Lindsey Bamber of Dayton, Tennessee; Stephenne Harding and Shaun Lynch of Washington, D.C., and Bryant Benson of Holyoke; great-grandchildren, Taylor Ann and Santiago Camacho of Cudjoe Key, Florida, Jack and sister Lola Bamber of Dayton, Tennessee, and Freyja Lynch of Washington D.C. Audrey leaves many nieces, nephews, great-nieces, great-nephews, and friends. 

The family suggests that in lieu of flowers, memorial contributions be sent to the Flagler Ambulance Service, or the Flagler Volunteer Fire Department, both at 427 Ruffner Avenue, Flagler, CO 80815. 

Funeral Service were held April 10, 2024, at the First Congregational Church in Flagler.

Arrangements were under the direction of Brown Funeral Home.