Charles Dee Collins (1917 - 2011)

Born 14 Jul 1917 in San Miguel, Colorado, USA

Biography

Charles Dee Collins went home to be with his Lord on March 27, 2011. He was born on July 14, 1917 to Andrew Boyd and Gertrude Eugenia (Saunders) Collins at the Collins Ranch on Hastings Mesa, San Miguel County, now known as the Last Dollar Ranch. He was born in the house that his father and grandfather finished building three months prior to his birth. He had one brother, Everett, and two sisters, Fern and Grace. 
His days on the ranch with the family were spent milking 40 head of cattle by hand twice a day, irrigating, fixing fences, haying and cutting timber for winter heat. Dee met his future wife, Janie Ione Carnal at a dance at Sawpit and the two were married on the bank of the Colorado River near Moab, Utah on his birthday in 1940. They were blessed with four children, LaVelle, Howard, Lloyd and Karen. Their 22 years of marriage ended in divorce, and Dee later married Lorna Mays and helped raise her three children, Dean, Mona and Theron. That marriage also ended in divorce. 
Dee was a hard worker and did whatever he needed to do to support his family. He found it necessary to work off the ranch too, so he built fences for area ranchers and the Forest Service on the Uncompahgre Plateau, Horsefly Mesa, Hanks Valley and Specie Mesa. He planted trees near Transfer Road for the Forest Service and retired from there after 25 years of service. When living in Sawpit, so his children could go to school, he worked as a miner and also at the ball mill in Telluride. He was the mayor of Sawpit. At one point later on he drove a bus and worked as a carpenter on condominiums in Vail. 
Dee loved music and, like his father, taught himself how to play the fiddle by ear. When asked how he did it, he said, “I just kept sawing on it until I learned. If I hit a note that didn’t sound right, I’d keep fiddling around until I found the right one.” He loved dancing, playing cards, snowmobiling and teasing everyone. One grandson asked him, “Gee, granddad! Aren’t you ever going to grow up?” And another grandson told his son, “You just as well get used to it son, we had to!”
He is survived by his faithful dog, Patches; his daughter, LaVelle (Bob) Corey; his son, Lloyd (Judy) Collins and eight grandchildren: Dwain and Rick Cribari and Steven Collins (Montrose), Chester Collins (Columbus, Neb.), Mike Bell (Hollis, Okla.), Deanna Olsen (Mt. Pleasant, Utah), Charles Stonehocker (Durango) and Gerald Stonehocker (Delta). He’s also survived by 16 great-grandchildren, nine great-great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, his brother and two sisters, his baby son Howard and daughter Karen, a grandson, great-grandson and nephew. Dee was a charter member of Christ’s Church of the Valley. He will be greatly missed by all who knew and loved him!
A visitation for family and friends was held Thursday, Mar. 31 at Crippin Funeral Home Chapel. A funeral service is scheduled for Friday, Apr. 1 at 11 a.m. at Christ’s Church of the Valley, 10 Hillcrest Plaza, off East Main Street, Montrose. Burial will take place at Cedar Hill Cemetery in Ouray at 2:30 p.m. on Friday.

Sources

• Ouray Plaindealer, Ouray, Colorado, March 27, 2011