By NICOLE MARSHALL World Staff Writer
Published: 9/2/2009 1:04 PM
Last Modified: 9/2/2009 7:08 PM
Beverly Duffield was a little woman, but she made a big impact on everyone she knew, her friends said.
Duffield, an avid cyclist and healthy-lifestyle advocate, was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver near 17th Street and a U.S. 75 exit ramp as she was starting her morning ride Tuesday.
Oklahoma Highway Patrol troopers later arrested Roberto Salvador Alvelais-Torres — a man they described as an illegal immigrant. An affidavit for a warrant to search Alvelais-Torres’ Chevrolet Suburban states that he admitted to a state trooper that he was the driver who hit Duffield.
The affidavit, signed by Trooper Randall Clark, indicates that Trooper Joel Franks located the Suburban — which had a damaged front-end — in a Sinclair Refinery parking lot near 31st Street and Southwest Boulevard. Franks then found Alvelais-Torres at work at the refinery, the document says.
Duffield was 74 years old, but many people who knew her casually said they would have guessed she was much younger. Even the medics who responded to the crash guessed that she was in her late 50s to early 60s.
Duffield, a clinical psychologist, was well-known in the cycling community, among mental health professionals and at St. John Medical Center, where she frequented the health center and volunteered.
Joy Kordis was her office manager and personal assistant for 13 years until Duffield retired about two years ago.
“She was like a second mother to me, and she was just good person. I could write a book about all of the things that she did for people,” Kordis said.
Duffield also will be sorely missed in her church community, said the Rev. Bob Lawrence, minister of Community of Hope United Church of Christ, 2545 S. Yale Ave.
Lawrence said church members gathered at the sanctuary Tuesday evening to try to deal with the shock of Duffield’s death.
The church was open for anyone who wished to share memories or light a candle in her honor on Wednesday and will be open again from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Lawrence said.
“People are welcome to come by, light a candle, spend some time in silence or whatever they need to do,” he said.
Lawrence has been the church’s minister for only three weeks but said Duffield was one of the first people to approach him and welcome him to the church, “in truly a Beverly kind of way.”
“In just the limited time that I knew her, she made me feel like I was the most important person in the world. As we began sharing stories about her last night, I learned that I was not the only one. She had a way of doing that with everyone.
“As a new pastor, you are not always really sure that you are getting across what you want to get across during services. But Beverly was the one who I could always count on to be looking back and grinning at me, nodding her head.”
A woman who was designated by Duffield’s husband, Jack Duffield, to speak on behalf of the family told the Tulsa World that Beverly Duffield had also suffered severe injuries several years ago when she was struck by another vehicle while riding her bike.
But that did not affect her commitment to exercising and cycling.
Darin Wade, operations coordinator at the St. John Siegfried Health Club, said Duffield had been a member of the club since it opened in 1988.
“She was one of those people who would be here pretty much every day with the exception of maybe Sunday,” Wade said.
Even though more than 20 years have passed, Duffield looked the same the entire time he knew her, he said.
Although most people described her as a “tiny little lady,” Wade said he saw her jump in to help people using free weights on more than one occasion.
State Rep. Lucky Lamons, D-Tulsa, knew Duffield from the cycling community as well as from the St. John health center.
“I saw her almost every day when she was out riding. She was always by herself,” said Lamons, who also is a cyclist. “My heart just sunk when I heard it was her.”
Laurie Thomas, director of the auxiliary program at St. John Medical Center, said Duffield had volunteered in many different hospital units, including the surgical waiting room and emergency department, during the past year or so.
“No matter what the circumstance, Beverly always kept it light and lively,” Thomas said.
Duffield brought her experience as a psychologist to her work in the stressful situations she found at the hospital, Thomas said.
She brought that same positive energy where ever she went, her minister said.
“That was the energy she had, like a golden retriever. No matter what happened, she was full of optimism and would come back at you with a tail wagging,” Lawrence said.
I am surprised the liberal Tulsa World allowed the writer to use the term “illegal alien”, they are usally so PC. I wrote to the news department of local radio station(the one that airs Rush and Hannity) for repeatedly calling the driver a undocumented worker.