DONALD DENNIS AND ANN (MILLER) DENNIS FAMILY WEBSITE                     NEW on the site  

  9.  Extended Family

       Ann's Pottery/Art 

Classmates              

Baseball 

    USS Dennis   USS Fogg   Delbert W. Miller     James L. Turner   POW  WWII

        Pueblo, Colorado

After being married in January 1961, they lived:

January-April  1961, First Apartment, Sarah Bains, 616 13th St.

April-August 1961    A little House at 1009 W. Routt.

Then to a lovely large apartment above T. G. McCarthy's Mortuary, FREE of rent for being the caretaker, night phone person,  (Ann)  ... limo washer/driver and helping with funerals, (Don).   August 1961.   The longest one month of their lives. 

They had one night off in all that time, and on the way home from a movie accidently hit a cat with the car.   Heartbroken, they took it to the country, held a funeral and buried it.   

The telephone rang in their apartment and also at the owner's home, and he wanted it answered on the first ring so it didn't awaken him at night.   No matter the time of night one had to jump up fully awake and catch it on that first ring.    Ann had to run the length of the building and answer the front doorbell at night to receive visitors, or when an out of town mortuary was bringing in "remains".   Each night you had to make the rounds of all of the rooms and unplug the lights around the people in caskets,  turn off the music, and shut down about 11 pm.  

Don got off work from the newspaper and home about 2:30 a.m. and he had to wash the hearses for the next day,  water the lawn and try to get some sleep.   Often he had to go help pick up remains.  One of his jobs was to move the flowers from the mortuary to the church for the funeral.   Then the second the funeral was over, he had to madly load all of the flowers, beat the procession to the cemetery and have all the flowers arranged...and be out of sight... when the family arrived.   Now and then he would get caught and have to stand very solemnly for the graveside service.   One could write a book on just the experiences of that one month.         (Don was helping carry a recently deceased man from an upstairs apt and he suddenly sat up on the stretcher (muscles reacting).... At one funeral they couldn't move the casket from the hearse as the man was too heavy... the old elevator at the mortuary that was moved by pulling ropes (squeeeeeek, squaaaaawk in the night)........ the visit from roommates and taking them to the embalming room full of florescent green looking bodies on tables, turning off the light and the screaming from the girls.... the time Don fell asleep watering the lawn and the boss was met by a small river running down the street as he came to work.... Don witnessing an autopsy  ......)

The owner, T. G. McCarthy had been a vaudeville performer in his early years and he could tell wonderful stories.  

However, the jobs were EXHAUSTING!!

When the call came offering the job in Grand Junction Don listened and hung up.    A quick discussion ensued and he called them back....YES!!!! 

Don was working at the Chieftain Newspaper in Pueblo, Colorado, (making $99 a week, then bumped to $135 a week) when he was offered a job with the Grand Junction  Daily  Sentinel as Sports Editor in late August of 1961 ($140 a week).

While it was only a few more dollars a week, the Daily Sentinel offered an attractive bonus plan;  but most of all it was a gigantic career step becoming Sports Editor on a good sized paper with just 22 months of experience as a sports writer.  "Editor and Publisher" did a story pointing out that at 21 years old, he was the youngest Sports Editor in the country for a paper with circulation of 25,000 or more.   

They loaded their belongings and headed across the Rockies.  In Canon City the generator went out, late in the evening.   Don was fortunate to find a little shop at the edge of town and a mechanic jumped right in and replaced it.   They had $100 to finance the whole move, and that took $36 of it.  

They drove all night and finally stayed in Eagle to get a few hours of sleep.  The next day in Grand Junction, Don had to report right to work.   With no place to live,  Ann waited in the car while Don covered a golf tournament.     They got a motel that night, and the next day found an old farm house at the edge of town, with a yard full of CATS!    That cinched it... Don rented it!  $90 a month. 

The old farm house was at  530  28 1/2 Road  (Sept-Nov 1961), and Scotty was born there.    

Ann's mom, Gen, came to help with the new baby and when it was time to go home they filled her suitcases with fresh apples from the adjacent orchard.    The bus back to South Dakota was delayed in a snow storm and Gen ended up having to stay at the Brown Palace Hotel overnight, in Denver.   She had to drag those HEAVY suitcases full of apples across a busy street to the hotel.

Wanting to be closer to work,  they next rented a basement apartment from the Joe and Ann Mendicelli family on White Avenue, and lived there the remainder of their time in GJct (Nov 1961-Aug 1964).    Moving was easy....they didn't own much!   Dan Creedon worked for Don in the Sports Dept at the Newspaper.    The two men loaded their one piece of furniture, a large buffet, into the trunk of the car as far as it would go, and Dan walked behind the car all the way to the new house, holding the loose end... no small trek!   Don drove slow but bumps must have had quite a ripple effect!  

The new apartment was furnished with used packing boxes, upside down with cloth over them,  until they slowly acquired the necessities from garage sales.   Ann discovered the fun of buying,  fixing up and re-selling used furniture!   Don always said he was glad he wasn't a drinking man, as he never knew where the furniture would be when he came home.   Once, he went on a road trip, came home and had to step aside so a man could get out of the house with his end tables.    "Psssst  Buddy", the guy said.  "Some great buys in there".         

Ann, Don, Scott and
Don's father, Leo Dennis.

Scotty and Don

Don and Scotty

Scotty and Ann

Ann & Scott

Grandma Florence, Steve and Scott

Steve and Ann

Don, Steve, Ann's Mom Gen, Scott

        Grand Junction and the first newborn baby, Scott!  Big Dan Creedon at the table with Don. 

L: Karen, Marlene, Casey holding Ken Kundel, Ivan (behind),
Don, Ann and little Scott in front.  1963

And then there were two... Scott and Steve... Such fun!

              

Steve one month

Steve

Grand Junction was fun, and Don found a lot of interesting jobs in addition to the newspaper work.  He was on the board of the National Junior College Baseball Tournament Committee.  In May 1962 he joined Sigma Delta Chi, and remains a member to this day.  Sigma Delta Chi over the years evolved into The Society of Professional Journalists.

 He did radio play-by-play for the college teams, worked with the university sports programs,  got very involved in the Grand Junction Eagles semi-pro baseball team (run by Sam Suplizio),  and made his first trips to Alaska with them.   The picture to the right is the Grand Junction Eagles Team in Fairbanks, 1965, their second trip up.

 Don began working as a bird-dog baseball scout for pro teams.   Claude "Dutch" Dietrich was his mentor.    He was with Houston, and then the Braves.  He was a dapper little old man who wore spats and always dressed in a suit.    When he would come to town there was usually a box of candy for Ann.  

Ann mostly took care of the two little boys.   They were active in church and both just enjoyed life, caring for each other and their little family.

However, in 1964 Don decided they should return to Pueblo, so he could complete his college courses at Pueblo College, now a 4-year college,  Southern Colorado State College.  The Pueblo Chieftain hired him again.   Don and Denver Sports Writer, Irv Moss, were partners in Colorado Sports Publications, which produced game programs and sports newsletters statewide, working out of a hotel in Denver.  He served on the Pueblo Runyon Field Baseball Committee, on the Colorado All-State Games Committee and was active in the Association of the United States Army.

1965 SCSC Annual Pic

They bought their first house on Mohawk Rd. when they returned to Pueblo.  The house was two years old, had three bedrooms, one bath, and cost $9900.   They put $250 down and had a monthly payment of $99.    Interest was around 3%, for a 15 year loan.   The house was 1,000 sq ft. in size...or less. 

Don attended college this time from September 1964 until December 1967, and took his final course at Univ of Alaska, Fairbanks to finish.

Don went to Alaska with the Grand Junction Eagles baseball team and while he was gone Pueblo's Fountain River flooded after 14 inches of rain.  Ann, 6 1/2 months pregnant, and the two boys, were part of the mandatory evacuation.    They spent the night at the Risley Junior High gym.   So many of the people sleeping there were sick and coughing so Ann carried both boys all night to keep them from catching the germs.   A very worried Don returned to find all was well; their house had not been affected and the family was fine.    

 The water had reached the back yards of the houses across the street from their home.    A good friend, James Osnowitz, drowned covering the flood for the Chieftain newspaper. 

21 people drowned or their deaths were attributed to the storms or activities related to the 1965 floods. Huge cottonwoods were uprooted by the torrential flow down the creek and bobbed like corks through Pueblo, crashing into the East Eighth and East Fourth Street bridges. Soon the Fountain jumped its banks and flooded a significant portion of the town.

 Teena was born two weeks later, very premature and weighing 5 lbs 1oz, losing to a bit over 4 lbs right away.  She was so tiny! Ann's mother Gen, and Gen's Aunt Marie, came to help with the kids.

Fountain River

Ann and three kids

Ann and Teena

Visiting Fowler

Fishing at Don's parents place
in Westcliffe, CO
on Lake DeWeese.
Aunt Barb in the pic.
 

Ken and Nan Tyndall
neighbors in Pueblo.

Living in Pueblo, a neighbor invited Ann to ride along as she picked up a piece of ceramic pottery she'd had fired at a shop.  Instant fascination!   Ann started with little pieces and eventually learned pouring, throwing, sculpting,  mold making, tile work... just totally loving ANY kind of clay or plaster work.    It became a lifelong hobby/vocation  that continues to this day.

Pottery

DONALD DENNIS AND ANN (MILLER) DENNIS FAMILY WEBSITE                     NEW on the site  

  9.  Extended Family

       Ann's Pottery/Art 

Classmates              

Baseball 

    USS Dennis   USS Fogg   Delbert W. Miller     James L. Turner   POW  WWII

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