Dorothy "Sue" Collins (1922-2010)

COLLINS, CROW

Posted By: Mark Christian
Date: 8/5/2012 at 23:13:07

From Adams & Soderstrum Funeral Home obituary, Story County, Iowa:

Dorothy "Sue" Collins

BORN: October 31, 1922
DIED: December 26, 2010
LOCATION: Ames, Iowa

Sue was an artist, a naturalist, a musician, an organizer, and most of all a loving wife and mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. Sue grew up in St. Paul, Minnesota, daughter of a forestry professor who spent summers in northern Minnesota at the Lake Itasca forestry camp and at the family compound near Cass Lake. She loved the birds and animals (even the mice), the flowers and wild fruit, and she taught her children and grandchildren a deep knowledge and appreciation of the natural world. She also taught a whole generation of children from Ames, through the Cub Scouts and Campfire Girls.

Sue graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1944, with majors in Mathematics and Architecture. She was active in her church, singing in the choir, organizing Sunday School, decorating the sanctuary, and for many years, running a Suncatcher Workshop that brought people together to make colorful sculptures of birds, animals, and flowers from copper strips and plastic beads. These were sold at church events to raise money for various causes; you can still see many of them hanging in windows around Ames. She loved collecting natural materials for art projects, from pine-cone wreaths and agate jewelry to Easter-egg trees and her wonderful wild-fruit jams and jellies.

Sue met her husband Ed at Cass Lake, where the Collins family also had a cabin. Their mothers were friends, and apparently made the match. They courted in Ed’s small sailboat on the lake, and honeymooned in the unheated cabin at Cass Lake in late December, 1944, before Ed went off to Europe with the Army.

Sue died peacefully on December 26th at Green Hills, with family at her side. She followed her beloved husband of 65 years, Ed, who died a year ago. She is survived by her five children (spouses), John (Anne) of Hudson, Wisconsin; Lee (Kaye) of Livermore, Colorado; Hugh (Paula) of Brownwood, Texas; Christopher (Martha) of Bloomington, Indiana; and Patti (Darrell) Crow, of New Albany, Mississippi; along with fifteen grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. A memorial service will be held at the United Church of Christ in Ames on Sunday January 16th at 3:00 in the afternoon. Sue loved classical music in all its forms, on WOI and at C.Y. Stephens. In lieu of flowers, please donate to Iowa Public Radio in her memory, or to the charity of your choice.

Memorial Service

January 16, 2011
3:00 PM
United Church of Christ, Congregational
217 6th St.
Ames, IA 50010

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