Dorothy (Blankenagel) Kehmeier
Marriages
Norman Kehmeier - 1948
Burial Details
Obituaries
Grand Junction Daily Sentinel page 6A Obituary - July 12, 2016
Dorothy Blankenagel
Kehmeier
February 5, 1929 - July 6, 2016
Dorothy Blankenagel
Kehmeier died peacefully at
her home in Eckert,
Wednesday, July 6, 2016. She
was 87 years of age.
Celebration of life services
will take place at the Eckert
Presbyterian Church on
Thursday, July 14 at 11:00
a.m., following a brief family internment service at the Eckert
Cemetery.
Dorothy was born on a cattle ranch on the Arizona-New
Mexico border near Springerville, Arizona, on February 5,
1929. She went to elementary and high school in Arizona, Utah,
and New Mexico and graduated with High Distinction from
Colorado State University in 1950, with a degree in Vocational
Home Economics. She and Norman Kehmeier were married in
1948, and they attended college two years as a married couple.
After graduation Norman worked for a year in Wyoming for the
Bureau of Land Management before the young couple returned
to Colorado to take up a lifetime of farming. During the next
decade five children were born to the family and Dorothy was
totally involved with their nurture and education.
While her children were growing Dorothy became active in
many aspects of Eckert community life. She was an active
member and elected officer in the American Association of
University Women, in the Delta-Montrose Community Concert
Association, various Parent-Teacher groups, the Delta County
Republican party, and the Eckert Presbyterian Church.
In the early seventies Dorothy earned a Master’s Degree in
English Literature on campus at Western State College at
Gunnison. She then taught school for five years in Delta County
Schools before deciding that she wasn’t destined to be a school
teacher.
When the last of their children headed off to college Dorothy
and Norman joined the Peace Corps. They spent a year in Chad,
Africa. The normal enlistment period of two years in the Peace
Corps was cut to one year because of the civil war in Chad. As a
postscript to their Africa experience Norman was offered a job
by the United States Department of Agriculture to be a member
of a team studying irrigation projects throughout the African
Sahel. Dorothy was able to travel with the team to Senegal,
Upper Volta, Mali, Gambia, and Mauritania, and together they
saw much of sub-Saharan West Africa. Dorothy and Norman
then returned to Eckert to resume their life on the farm.
During the first decade of this century Dorothy became
interested in land conservation and was instrumental in
promoting conservation easements as a method of preserving
land for agriculture and wild life. She organized and led a group
of land conservationists whose efforts led to many parcels of
Delta County farmland being set aside for these conservation
purposes.
Dorothy is survived by Norman, her husband of 67 years; two
daughters, Nancy (Ron) Anderson of St. Paul, Minnesota, and
Ruth (Dale) Phippeny of Nucla, Colorado; three sons, Ralph
(Margrit) Kehmeier of Friedrichshafen, Germany; Paul (Olga)
Kehmeier of Eckert, and David (Ellie) Kehmeier of San Jose,
California, and a brother, John (Chelo) Blankenagel of Mexico
City. She is also survived by five grandchildren and two stepgrandchildren
as well as numerous nieces and nephews.
Memorial contributions can be made to HopeWest, PO Box
24, Delta, Colorado 81416.
Arrangements are under the care and direction of Taylor
Funeral Service and Crematory.
View the internet obituary and sign the online guest registry at
www.taylorfuneralservice.com.
