A memorial service was held Tuesday at 3 PM outdoors at the Dechairo Home, 40898 County Road 13, Fort Collins, Colorado.
A celebration of life will be held on Monday, September 21 at 3 pm at Big R Orchard. The directions to the venue are as followed:
From US Highway 421, exit 285, go south on Brushy Mountain Road approximately 7 miles. At Bethany Church Road, veer slightly right and continue to second paved drive on left. Look for Big R Orchard sign. Follow drive past Apple House and continue to end of driveway.
Celebration of her life will be held at a later date in Virginia.
Donna was born May 1, 1961, in Wilkesboro, North Carolina to Edith and Don Canter.
Donna was a cheerleader at West Wilkes High School and graduated in 1979. She met John Dilley, the love of her life, at a wedding in Boone, NC, and they were married on May 22, 1985. She graduated from Lynchburg College in 1988.
Donna and John lived in Salem, Virginia for 30 years and raised two daughters, Ursula and Natalie. For 20 years she directed the Roanoke chapter of the National League of Junior Cotillions. She adored her hundreds of students and remembered every one by name.
They moved to Colorado in 2013 and fell in love with the land and the mountains and the big sky and the native fauna. Donna was a devout Christian and loved to worship with Hope Community Fellowship.
She was a fearless adventurer, a warm caregiver, an irrepressible source of joy and fun and an instant friend to everyone she met.
Donna is survived by her husband John; her father Don Canter; her daughter Natalie Dilley-Conley and her husband Geoff; her grandchildren Akela, Madison, and Dylan Conley; her daughter Ursula Dilley; her sister, Kay Barnett and her husband Mike; her brother Brent Holloway and his wife Anita; her brother Bobby Holloway and his wife Renaugh; her sister (niece) Angie Brehm and her husband Andy; dearly beloved in-laws, aunts and uncles, nieces and nephews, cousins and so many precious friends; and her devoted 14-year-old poodle Ruby.
She was preceded in death in 2006 by her mother, Edith Canter.
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