Alice Eva "Dolly" Crawford, 85, Spearfish, quietly passed away on May 18, 2009, at Spearfish Regional Hospital after a courageous fight to recover from a broken hip.
Her beloved Colorado Rockies baseball team was winning their game with the Atlanta Braves for her as she left this world to be with her family who had already gone before her.
Born to Frank and Mary (Wanhala) Curnow on July 15, 1923, at home in Terraville. With six sisters and two brothers, she learned how to fight for survival at an early age.
This "Gold Miners Daughter," walked every weekday through the "Terraville Tunnel" to go to high school. Dolly graduated from Lead High School just before the United States entered World War II.
She served her country in a civil service capacity in Washington, D.C., and in California as a stenographer, where she met a young sailor, C. Douglas Crawford.
They married and had three children: Martha Ann, Margaret Alice and Douglas Allan Crawford. Dolly's love and passions were family gatherings such as camping, fishing at Castle Creek, and rock hunting for Fairburn agates in the Badlands. She was also an avid collector, she also loved to go bottle digging in abandoned mining camps.
She expressed her artistic talents, making beautiful crochet items like small intricate doll clothes, doilies, ornaments, bedspreads and afghans. She crocheted two award-winning American flags.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Dolly traveled with her family from job to job because her husband worked in electrical construction business, but she eventually settled in Rapid City in 1960.
Now divorced, Dolly restarted her civil service career at Ellsworth Air Force Base, bought her first home in 1966, and her yellow GMC Jimmy 4x4 in 1971 and drove it for 30 years.
This home and so many treasures were lost during the 1972 flood, where Dolly, Martha, and Doug, along with their pets, spent the night in the Jimmy at a shopping center parking lot.
However, Dolly continued to fight back, relocating in Rapid Valley and then in Box Elder, before retiring from Ellsworth in 1985. After retirement, she moved to Spearfish to be closer to her brothers, sisters, aunts, and cousins, where she lived out the remainder of her life.
Dolly was indeed a survivor, from natural disaster to fighting colon and lung cancer.
Finally her bones became too fragile to heal and she was unable to return home from the hospital. In her last days, Dolly said, "I am ready to meet my Savior."
Surviving are her children, Martha Crawford, Arvada, Colo., Margaret Crawford and husband, Arthur Glickman, Littleton, Colo., Douglas Crawford and wife, Loree, with grandchildren Christopher and Erin, Rapid City; sisters, Mayme Parsons, Wyethville, Va., and Louise Hanson, Cleburne, Texas; her brother, Frank, "Buddy" Curnow, with wife, Voni, Spearfish; numerous nieces, nephews, friends; and her loyal cat, Puffy.
Her parents, four sisters, and a brother preceded her in death.
Dolly's wishes were to not grieve for her loss of life, but to celebrate her will to live! Her family will announce a gathering to celebrate Dolly's life at a later date.
Her beloved Colorado Rockies baseball team was winning their game with the Atlanta Braves for her as she left this world to be with her family who had already gone before her.
Born to Frank and Mary (Wanhala) Curnow on July 15, 1923, at home in Terraville. With six sisters and two brothers, she learned how to fight for survival at an early age.
This "Gold Miners Daughter," walked every weekday through the "Terraville Tunnel" to go to high school. Dolly graduated from Lead High School just before the United States entered World War II.
She served her country in a civil service capacity in Washington, D.C., and in California as a stenographer, where she met a young sailor, C. Douglas Crawford.
They married and had three children: Martha Ann, Margaret Alice and Douglas Allan Crawford. Dolly's love and passions were family gatherings such as camping, fishing at Castle Creek, and rock hunting for Fairburn agates in the Badlands. She was also an avid collector, she also loved to go bottle digging in abandoned mining camps.
She expressed her artistic talents, making beautiful crochet items like small intricate doll clothes, doilies, ornaments, bedspreads and afghans. She crocheted two award-winning American flags.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Dolly traveled with her family from job to job because her husband worked in electrical construction business, but she eventually settled in Rapid City in 1960.
Now divorced, Dolly restarted her civil service career at Ellsworth Air Force Base, bought her first home in 1966, and her yellow GMC Jimmy 4x4 in 1971 and drove it for 30 years.
This home and so many treasures were lost during the 1972 flood, where Dolly, Martha, and Doug, along with their pets, spent the night in the Jimmy at a shopping center parking lot.
However, Dolly continued to fight back, relocating in Rapid Valley and then in Box Elder, before retiring from Ellsworth in 1985. After retirement, she moved to Spearfish to be closer to her brothers, sisters, aunts, and cousins, where she lived out the remainder of her life.
Dolly was indeed a survivor, from natural disaster to fighting colon and lung cancer.
Finally her bones became too fragile to heal and she was unable to return home from the hospital. In her last days, Dolly said, "I am ready to meet my Savior."
Surviving are her children, Martha Crawford, Arvada, Colo., Margaret Crawford and husband, Arthur Glickman, Littleton, Colo., Douglas Crawford and wife, Loree, with grandchildren Christopher and Erin, Rapid City; sisters, Mayme Parsons, Wyethville, Va., and Louise Hanson, Cleburne, Texas; her brother, Frank, "Buddy" Curnow, with wife, Voni, Spearfish; numerous nieces, nephews, friends; and her loyal cat, Puffy.
Her parents, four sisters, and a brother preceded her in death.
Dolly's wishes were to not grieve for her loss of life, but to celebrate her will to live! Her family will announce a gathering to celebrate Dolly's life at a later date.
Alice Eva "Dolly" Crawford, 85, Spearfish, quietly passed away on May 18, 2009, at Spearfish Regional Hospital after a courageous fight to recover from a broken hip.
Her beloved Colorado Rockies baseball team was winning their game with the Atlanta Braves for her as she left this world to be with her family who had already gone before her.
Born to Frank and Mary (Wanhala) Curnow on July 15, 1923, at home in Terraville. With six sisters and two brothers, she learned how to fight for survival at an early age.
This "Gold Miners Daughter," walked every weekday through the "Terraville Tunnel" to go to high school. Dolly graduated from Lead High School just before the United States entered World War II.
She served her country in a civil service capacity in Washington, D.C., and in California as a stenographer, where she met a young sailor, C. Douglas Crawford.
They married and had three children: Martha Ann, Margaret Alice and Douglas Allan Crawford. Dolly's love and passions were family gatherings such as camping, fishing at Castle Creek, and rock hunting for Fairburn agates in the Badlands. She was also an avid collector, she also loved to go bottle digging in abandoned mining camps.
She expressed her artistic talents, making beautiful crochet items like small intricate doll clothes, doilies, ornaments, bedspreads and afghans. She crocheted two award-winning American flags.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Dolly traveled with her family from job to job because her husband worked in electrical construction business, but she eventually settled in Rapid City in 1960.
Now divorced, Dolly restarted her civil service career at Ellsworth Air Force Base, bought her first home in 1966, and her yellow GMC Jimmy 4x4 in 1971 and drove it for 30 years.
This home and so many treasures were lost during the 1972 flood, where Dolly, Martha, and Doug, along with their pets, spent the night in the Jimmy at a shopping center parking lot.
However, Dolly continued to fight back, relocating in Rapid Valley and then in Box Elder, before retiring from Ellsworth in 1985. After retirement, she moved to Spearfish to be closer to her brothers, sisters, aunts, and cousins, where she lived out the remainder of her life.
Dolly was indeed a survivor, from natural disaster to fighting colon and lung cancer.
Finally her bones became too fragile to heal and she was unable to return home from the hospital. In her last days, Dolly said, "I am ready to meet my Savior."
Surviving are her children, Martha Crawford, Arvada, Colo., Margaret Crawford and husband, Arthur Glickman, Littleton, Colo., Douglas Crawford and wife, Loree, with grandchildren Christopher and Erin, Rapid City; sisters, Mayme Parsons, Wyethville, Va., and Louise Hanson, Cleburne, Texas; her brother, Frank, "Buddy" Curnow, with wife, Voni, Spearfish; numerous nieces, nephews, friends; and her loyal cat, Puffy.
Her parents, four sisters, and a brother preceded her in death.
Dolly's wishes were to not grieve for her loss of life, but to celebrate her will to live! Her family will announce a gathering to celebrate Dolly's life at a later date.
Her beloved Colorado Rockies baseball team was winning their game with the Atlanta Braves for her as she left this world to be with her family who had already gone before her.
Born to Frank and Mary (Wanhala) Curnow on July 15, 1923, at home in Terraville. With six sisters and two brothers, she learned how to fight for survival at an early age.
This "Gold Miners Daughter," walked every weekday through the "Terraville Tunnel" to go to high school. Dolly graduated from Lead High School just before the United States entered World War II.
She served her country in a civil service capacity in Washington, D.C., and in California as a stenographer, where she met a young sailor, C. Douglas Crawford.
They married and had three children: Martha Ann, Margaret Alice and Douglas Allan Crawford. Dolly's love and passions were family gatherings such as camping, fishing at Castle Creek, and rock hunting for Fairburn agates in the Badlands. She was also an avid collector, she also loved to go bottle digging in abandoned mining camps.
She expressed her artistic talents, making beautiful crochet items like small intricate doll clothes, doilies, ornaments, bedspreads and afghans. She crocheted two award-winning American flags.
In the 1940s and 1950s, Dolly traveled with her family from job to job because her husband worked in electrical construction business, but she eventually settled in Rapid City in 1960.
Now divorced, Dolly restarted her civil service career at Ellsworth Air Force Base, bought her first home in 1966, and her yellow GMC Jimmy 4x4 in 1971 and drove it for 30 years.
This home and so many treasures were lost during the 1972 flood, where Dolly, Martha, and Doug, along with their pets, spent the night in the Jimmy at a shopping center parking lot.
However, Dolly continued to fight back, relocating in Rapid Valley and then in Box Elder, before retiring from Ellsworth in 1985. After retirement, she moved to Spearfish to be closer to her brothers, sisters, aunts, and cousins, where she lived out the remainder of her life.
Dolly was indeed a survivor, from natural disaster to fighting colon and lung cancer.
Finally her bones became too fragile to heal and she was unable to return home from the hospital. In her last days, Dolly said, "I am ready to meet my Savior."
Surviving are her children, Martha Crawford, Arvada, Colo., Margaret Crawford and husband, Arthur Glickman, Littleton, Colo., Douglas Crawford and wife, Loree, with grandchildren Christopher and Erin, Rapid City; sisters, Mayme Parsons, Wyethville, Va., and Louise Hanson, Cleburne, Texas; her brother, Frank, "Buddy" Curnow, with wife, Voni, Spearfish; numerous nieces, nephews, friends; and her loyal cat, Puffy.
Her parents, four sisters, and a brother preceded her in death.
Dolly's wishes were to not grieve for her loss of life, but to celebrate her will to live! Her family will announce a gathering to celebrate Dolly's life at a later date.
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