Dawn Folks

December 14, 1955 – June 5, 2024

Dawn Folks went home to be with her Lord on Wednesday, June 5th, 2024 while a resident at Aspen Ridge Alzheimer’s Care Center in Grand Junction, Colorado. She is now free of the bondage of her tired, worn and broken body. Amen!

Dawn was born on December 14th, 1955 in Grand Junction, Colorado at St. Mary’s Hospital; the only daughter of Robert N. and Betty Folks. From the time she was young, Dawn had a very evident love of horses and the outdoors. She became especially talented in the area of vocal performance. She enjoyed singing in choral groups and participated in her high school choir, later with Grand Junction’s Schumann Singers and in several local Grand Junction musicals, such as “Man of La Mancha” and “Carousel.”

Early in her college years, Dawn served as a seasonal park ranger in the backcountry of Canyonlands National Park, where she met and later married Douglas Treadway, a fellow park ranger, in 1977. They settled into a post-Park Service-life on Glade Park, Colorado, where they began to collaborate with a Glade Park landowner to grow and harvest the seed of various native rangeland grasses for rangeland restoration projects.

It was in the early 1980s that Dawn came to accept the saving grace offered to all by the work and person of Jesus Christ. Her faith never faltered in the rough years that were to follow. As she approached the end of her life, her faith remained strong; being sure of what she hoped for (forgiveness) and convicted about the things she could not yet see (eternity with God.)

In 1984, Dawn began Nursing School at Mesa State College. It was during this period that in 1986, Dawn was accidentally kicked in the forehead by one of her horses. This would have profound consequences on her life creating stiff challenges, foremost being finishing her degree. She struggled greatly with her studies and then a divorce, but in the end, she persevered and earned her RN, whereupon she began a 17-year career as an ICU nurse at the same hospital in which she was born.

Following her time at St. Mary’s Hospital, Dawn worked as a nurse for 1 year at Dixie Regional Medical Center in St. George, Utah then returned to Grand Junction, spending 2 years working as a hospice and home health nurse followed by 7 years as a Grand Junction District 51 school nurse. She retired from nursing in 2016.

Much of her adult life she enjoyed owning and riding horses, eventually enjoying both challenging endurance rides and the much more benign trail ride. She especially enjoyed trailering her horses to the Lizard Head Pass area (near Telluride) where she would camp and take long rides, circumnavigating the Wilson Range solo. She and her horses were pressed into service on numerous occasions during family or friends’ elk hunts.

Dawn’s other interests included backpacking in the wild places of Utah and Colorado and whitewater rafting, the pinnacle of which was an 18-day Grand Canyon river trip in two small (14-foot) boats in 1984—the year that the river flowed at 45,000 cubic feet per second.

Dawn is preceded in death by her father, Robert N. Folks; mother, Betty Folks; eldest brother, Robert A. Folks; brother, Steven R. Folks. She is survived by two brothers, Thomas F. Folks, and Gary M. Folks and 12 nieces and nephews.

A celebration of Dawn’s life will be held at Redlands Community Church in the Fall of 2024 (date to be announced) in Grand Junction, Colorado.