Contents - 2009 Goldpanner Baseball Barnstorming Trip

Click here for Dennis Family Ancestral  Info & Pictures     or    USS Dennis

         

              DON DENNIS AND ANN (MILLER) DENNIS FAMILY WEBSITE 

  NEW on the site  

  1.  HOME  (The early years)     2. Pueblo, Gr Junction   3.  Fairbanks  1      4.  Fairbanks  2  
  5.  Arizona     6. Rural San Diego   7.  Mixed Pictures   8.  Family Album
  9.  Extended Family   10. Dupree Ranch        Denver        Articles    1     2     3    4

        Calendars 56-61  

       La Veta, CO        AAU Basketball 

Driving to Alaska 09

       Lefse

2009 Goldpanner Barnstorming Trip

click for: Sturgis  Menu  (100 + pages of Sturgis material)

 click for:  Fowler Menu  (100 + pages of Fowler material)

   Pueblo Junior College Contents Page       Don's College/Jobs
     
Army & Yearbooks                                    Ann's College/Jobs 
  Ann's Pottery/Art   Perfect Marriage (or not)  Baseball  50's  Song Hits
  Classmates  Uptown Theater  Silly Stories  Sports Contents Pg
  Ancestors   MAIN MENU     NY/SD Millers
  Joens Research
 on Utters),   Peregrine White, Mayflower
  Dennis/Wright - 
Dennis 1   2   3   4  -      Scotty Wright -   Stewart  -      
  
Ferguson  1 -     Ferg. History -         Old  Pics  -   
Dennis  Genealogy
 USS Dennis      USS Fogg      USS St. Lo     Delbert Miller      James Turner 

   POW  WWII             "It All Began"                   "....And an Electric Chair"

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 CHILDHOOD, SCHOOL, ARMY,
MEETING AND MARRYING

 

 

THE EARLY YEARS

 

 

 family website for the next generations

 

Donald Dennis growing up in Fowler, Colorado

 

look at:
FOWLER
SCHOOL

2-12

 

Marlene and Ann Miller
Dupree, SD

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Left:  Don and his parents, Florence and Leo Dennis, in Syracuse, NY, where his father spent WWII as a chemist with the US Department of Public Health.   They lived in the Queens section of NY City for two years and then moved upstate to Syracuse, living there for three years.  Don began school in Syracuse.  The family moved to Fowler, CO when he was in the second grade, 1946.

Right:  Gen, Ann and Marlene.  Ann's family lived at Dupree, SD until her 4th grade, when they moved to Spearfish, SD for 3 years and then settled in Sturgis, SD until the present.    The farm at Dupree is still in the family.

(click pics to enlarge)


Don


Don, Aunt Barb


Don

 


Ann, Marlene and Karen
An


 


Ann 1956


Ann and Mother

 

 


1957 - Don and parents,
Leo and Florence Dennis
(click to enlarge)


Gen and Casey Miller, Ann's Parents 

 




 1955 Karen, Marlene, Ann




 

 

 

 


Your social life revolved around your school,
your church groups and your job.  Don's CHURCH
and work locations are pictured above.

During his junior and senior years of high school, Don was projectionist at the Valley Theater in Fowler.    Late in his senior year he worked building river jetties.    As that job was winding down, Milford Switser stopped him on the street and asked him to round up a crew of guys to go to Pueblo and work during a strike at Wonder Bread.  Darrell Fedde distinguished himself by unloading a full railroad car of 100# bags of flour in half a day, with no help.  It had taken a day and a half for two union guys to do the same.    Don was put on the packaging machine, catching the bread as it came down the belt and passing it over to rolling shelves.     After the first day of doing this for 8 hours, he woke up that night passing his pillows across the bed. 

        Click to enlarge... payslips from Kellner Jetties Co and Continental Baking Company.

Managing the Spur Theater in LaVeta, CO was his summer job in 1958.   In the summer of 1959 he went back to LaVeta and worked for Charlie Masinton in his stores.  Ah, LaVeta!  Those stories will have to wait for the book.


Click to see full crowd picture
Courtesy LaVeta Historic Preservation Committee
and Kathy Kiernen Martin

Charlies in La Veta
Dennis Photo
 


Don (left) in Army 
after high school.
Bob Vaughn & Darrell Fedde

click for:
ARMY SERVICE

1957-1965


Spanish Peaks
  
 Don was #107 in the
canister at the top
of the 13,700 ft.
West Peak  in 1958.

Growing up in Sturgis, Ann worked at the Dakota Theater; during summers a car hop at A&W Drive-In, winters a soda jerk at Carl's Confectionery; worked for the weekly Sturgis newspaper.  Summer of 1957 worked at Palmer Gulch resort.

 

 

(click on each, for pages behind blue links below)

 

 Don Dennis

Fowler High School

Don went to college in Pueblo, CO
after graduating
from high school in 1957.

 COLLEGE - JOBS

 

 

Ann Miller

Sturgis High School

Ann went to college in Denver
after graduating
from high school in 1958.

College - JOBS

Autobiography for 50th Reunion

 

They met in Denver on December 6, 1958, when Don and friends came
to Ann's 18th birthday party to visit his Fowler friend, Chuck Hogue.

 

TYPE A meets RESERVED!

 

First, a year and a half of being great close friends, weekend visits packed with activity, lots of letters back and forth (Pueblo is 120 miles south of Denver) and having such fun with a large group of friends.  

 

Pauline Hoffman,  Don Dennis, Chuck Hogue on February 14, 1959, when Ann met Don's family and was a weekend guest at their home in Fowler, CO.


Don's mother, Florence,
Don and Ann

Se1960 Don in Sturgis, SD to meet Ann's family.  
 
Standing: mom Gen, sister Karen.
Seated: dad Walter (Casey) Miller and Don.


1960

 

 

 

FAVORITE  Denver  MEMORIES


Four Aces' "Melody of Love"; Ella's "Embraceable You".

Donald's Drive-In, E. Colfax, 24c tacos & 49c french dips!

The Tamale Man on the corner in downtown Denver.

Hiking in the Rockies...exploring back roads.

Listening to beautiful music.

Movies.

Always laughing!


Love can Transform

The most commonplace

Into beauty and splendor

and sweetness and grace.

 

 

 

ENGAGED
OCTOBER 31, 1960 

Don proposed and gave Ann a lovely ring.    They were due at the home of some friends, within walking distance, for a Halloween Party.  It had been raining, Denver's streets and walks were a little icy, and not wanting the lady to get muddy, he gallantly picked her up, started walking ..... lost his footing and promptly deposited his new fiance in a pile of slushy mud.    Ever good natured,  Ann laughed and they decided to go to the party long enough to show off a muddy ring.


January 13, 1961
Wedding Shower...Roommate
Joan, left...Ann, right. 

Then the forever part! 
Several months of excluding all others, heart to heart forever;
They were married a little more than two years after they met.

 

Pauline Hogue, Ann and Don Dennis, Chuck Hogue

see: Married January 1961

                           

Paul Weiland                                   Laurie Bandel

L

Chuck and Pauline Hogue, Paul Weiland, Laurie Bandel, and Don and Ann drove to Brush, CO for the wedding.  

Pastor Bob Morgan of the Brush Methodist Church married them.  He had been a school principal in Fowler, CO when Don was growing up, and was a friend.   

After the wedding, all enjoyed a wedding dinner, and then headed home.  Paul (a good friend from both high school and college days)  rode with the newlyweds the 170 miles back to Pueblo.   However the electrical system failed on Don's car and in the middle of a dark, COLD January night, they drove slowly and carefully, with no lights and no heater! 

(Bob Morgan passed away at 81, on Sept 27, 2006 in Cheyenne, WY).

 

 

 

 

 


                              

Left, Ann's mom, Gen Miller, Don and Don's mom,
Florence Dennis, visiting their first apartment.  2/61

 

Don and Ann's first few dates were at D C Truckers basketball games in Denver.  Forty-eight (48) years later, August 2007, in the mail, totally unexpected,  came a book on the National Industrial Basketball League, written by Robin Buchan and Bruce Kitts; "LONGSHOT, the Story of the Buchan Bakers" one of the teams in the League.  Talk about bringing back memories!  

Bruce Kitts had worked in Fairbanks in the early 70's, remembered Don was from Colorado and figured he was familiar with the League.   Little did he know!  To the right is a program Don saved from March 7, 1959, one of those early games. 

Take a look at   www.buchanbakers.com.

1958-1959 D-C Truckers, Denver


 

 

 

 

(enlarge)

 

After Marriage....A good life begins...... 
College, Children, Career...

 
click for: PUEBLO

 

 

Alaska Goldpanners Baseball Team of Fairbanks, Alaska, Midnight Sun Game
Pictures from  Sports Illustrated - Midnight Sun Game 2007
The Alaska Goldpanners above, team Don has managed since 1967.
 

click below for:


Fox TV - Goldpanners, Don, Midnight Sun Game 2008

 Don and the Goldpanners

Magazine article on the Goldpanners

Touching The Game, Alaska premiered in Fairbanks on Friday 6/19/09

It was years in the making.  On Friday 6/19/09, Touching The Game, Alaska premiered in Fairbanks, AK as part of the Midnight Sun weekend festivities.  The city of Fairbanks  celebrated the Summer Solstice all weekend long kicking off with the long-awaited documentary on the Alaska Baseball League.


2009

The 2-Disc Touching the Game, Alaska DVD was released on 11/30/09.   At a price of $19.95, the DVD  features the full-length director’s cut of the film as well as plenty of extra features and unseen footage.  To order, click here

http://touchingthegame.com/

 

 

click for:  Recipe for a
Perfect Marriage 
(or not)

Click to read the
"
Ultimate Love Letter"

Next:  Pueblo, Grand Junction, Pueblo

 webmaster:  Ann Dennis

 technical:  Todd Dennis
  "a most patient teacher"


(put website in subject)

Everyday, try to give a blessing  instead of seeking a blessing! 

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