Best Friends of Denver Culture -- Family

When George Caulkins wanted to surprise his wife, Eleanor Newman Caulkins, he asked his five children -- George, Max, Mary, David and John -- and their spouses to pool their money to help with the grand gesture: an opera house named after her. Their combined $7 million is helping to build the Ellie Caulkins Opera House, which is being fitted into the shell of the historic 1908 Quigg Newton Auditorium Theater at the Denver Performing Arts Complex. Eleanor will have to wait until 2005 to see her namesake completed.