Dora Keller McKinlay
Burial Details
Obituaries
Steamboat Pilot page 8 - October 8, 1942
Another familiar figure has been lost to Routt County with the death Monday of Mrs. W .A. McKinlay, one of the earliest residents of the county. Mrs. McKinlay passed away after an illness of about a week.
Funeral services are being held this afternoon at the Heyer Mortuary with Reverand William O. Richards, Episcopal rector from Glenwood Springs in charge. Pallbearers are Ray Monson, Clay Monson, John Crawford, Logan Crawford, Fred Foster and Dan Stukey. Burial is to be in the Steamboat Springs Cemetery.
Dora Jeanette Keller was born in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and came west with her father, grandmother, and a nurse while she was yet a small child her mother having died shortly before. Her father, William A. Keller, settled first at Leadville where he was occupied in staking out gold claims for the Masonic Lodge of which he was a 33rd degree member. After about three years in Leadville the family which consisted of Dora, an older brother and two sisters, moved to Steamboat Springs where they settled on Elk River on a ranch. Later Mr. Keller homesteaded another ranch on Elk River where the family made their home for many years.
Dora Keller was educated at Sedalia, Missouri, and after returning west was employed as assistant cashier in the Milner Bank and Trust Company and later as a court reporter. In June of 1900 she was married to William A. McKinlay, the marriage taking place at St. Marks Episcopal Church in Denver. With a cousin Mr. McKinlay bought and stocked the Elkhead Ranch and these two were among the first ranchers in the county to have pure bred horses and cattle on the ranch.
For a number of years Mr. McKinlay served as county treasurer and Mrs. McKinlay worked in the office as his deputy.
After the death of her sister, Ivy May Ellis, Mr. and Mrs. McKinlay took her three daughters to raise. Mrs. McKinlay was always active in club life in Steamboat Springs, being a long time member of the Woman's Club and of the Woman's Guild of the Episcopal church of which she was a member.
Following Mr. McKinlay's retirement, Mrs. McKinlay and he traveled extensively throughout the country, often accompanied by her sister, Miss Maude Keller. Mr McKinlay died in 1925 and is interred in Sunnyside Mausoleum at Long Beach, California.
In recent years Mrs. McKinlay owned and operated the Central Hotel in Steamboat Springs and was living there when she became ill.
She is survived by three nieces she reared, Mrs. Leo R. Luhan, Miss Margaret Ellis, and Mrs. John Sandlin, and Mrs. Edna Price, Mrs Ruth Wheeler, William Keller and Lee Keller, nieces and nephews.
