“Hub Cap Annie” was once a fixture on Denver’s East Colfax Avenue.
It was the alter ego of Jane Withers, known for donning a Viking-style costume — a headdress, horns and long gold braids.
“Who would wear that costume if they didn’t have a sense of humor? I think that’s what I liked about her,” said Chris Stieler, a volunteer at the Littleton nursing home where Withers lived her final days.
Withers, in her 80s, died on April 25, leaving behind a lively story and a legacy of local fame and redemption.
“She’s different from anyone I’ve ever met. She always had a story to tell, but she was always concerned about others,” Stieler said, describing her as “crazy, feisty, wild — but definitely a caring person.”
Born in Cleveland and raised in Florida, Withers headed to Denver after getting permission to open a Hub Cap Annie store as a franchise, Stieler said. The business sold used hubcaps for cars back when many cars were equipped with the covers for wheels. Her store arrived in the Mile High City in the early 1980s, where she operated the business until 2008, becoming well-known along the way.
She boasted degrees in psychology and nursing from the University of Florida and worked as a registered nurse, but wanted to “start a different life, I believe,” Stieler said.
Her move west saw her grow enamored with hubcaps.
Stieler, who met Withers nine years ago, once said to her: “If I asked you what the hubcap looked like for a 1964 Plymouth, would you be able to tell me?
“And she was able to,” Stieler said.
Her business life took a seedy turn, dealing in stolen hubcaps, Stieler said.
That included getting them “off of cars in the parking lot of Mile High Stadium during Broncos’ games,” Withers was quoted as saying in Car and Driver magazine. After police raided her store in a sting operation, she was charged with a felony and convicted, the magazine wrote.
But she pushed on. And she began using her experiences to inspire others, becoming a motivational speaker and making it a point to hire employees who needed mentoring and a second chance, according to the LEADER magazine from Life Care, the nursing home company that housed her in recent years.
“I think she always wanted to redeem herself in a sense,” Stieler said. “She sure made up her mind that she was going to be a benefit and help other people.”
She was one of the founders of the Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce, and photos show her with former officials — U.S. senators, Denver Mayor Federico Peña and Colorado governors, Stieler said.
Even when she would slip into confusion amid dementia in her later years, she “would still think she was going to give a lecture that evening, even up to last week,” Stieler said the day after she passed.
“I just thought that was interesting that that was in the forefront of her mind,” Stieler added.
At the Life Care Center of Littleton where she lived and had many friends, Withers will be missed.
Stieler, a 72-year-old former real-estate agent, remembers Withers’ irreverent comments and what people around her called “Jane-isms,” Stieler said.
“She’s one of a kind,” Stieler said. “And I’ll miss her sense of humor and her stories and just spending time with her.”