Donna Bell Gardner

After graduation I attended Peru State Teachers College earning a Nebraska State Teacher’s Certificate. I married Harry J. Gardner in September of 1950. We moved from Iowa to Nebraska and then to Colorado. Our first daughter was born in Nebraska City in November 1954. The second one was born in Lincoln and the third daughter was born in Pueblo, CO, and our son in Colorado Springs.

I helped promote recreational volleyball at Pueblo in 1957 and 1958. Caterpillar Company transferred us to Grand Junction, CO in 1960. I was elected vice-president of the PTA and was involved in that for numerous years. I volunteered at schools for various activities. I worked when needed for Mesa County School District as team-teacher and teacher’s-aide in primarily Special Education students for 22 years. All four of our children excelled in art and music.

We traveled a lot due to the nature of our business (and also for pleasure), covering most of the 50 states, including Alaska and Hawaii. Company trips took us to Nassau, Bermuda, Mexico, and Canada. Traveling became a hobby, as did hunting, camping, raising racehorses, and following the race meets in Idaho, Wyoming, California, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, and fair circuit of Colorado.

We have been involved in raising funds through A.B.W.A. and Mesa County Sheriff’s Posse and Possettes to put on Colorado Stampede Rodeo each June and monies for yearly scholarships for needy students in Mesa County, CO.

We have had as many as seven grandkids at one time in Little League summer baseball, playing the same night on four or five separate diamonds. Have been involved in multitude of 4-H projects and Junior and Senior High football games all over the years at Grand Junction-Fruita, Colorado locations.

A Memorial Service will be held at Callahan-Edfast Mortuary on Friday, October 12, 2018, at 6:00PM.