Donald R Graham

When he graduated from high school in 1956, Donn Graham joined the US Navy and set off to see the world. Fueled by that sense of adventure and drawn by the open ocean and the open road, he never tired of travel. His was a life filled with people and places, old friends and new faces—a life of curiosity propelled by what might lie ahead.

Born May 4, 1938, the youngest child of Lyle and Ella Graham, Donn met the love of his life when he was just sixteen years old (and she fourteen). Four years later, upon her graduation from high school in 1958, Kay Palmer became Kay Graham, and Donn would have a traveling companion for the next sixty-six years.

During Donn's military career and even afterwards, the couple moved frequently. They lived in California, Maine, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Utah, Idaho, Colorado, and Wyoming. They spent most of their lives in Cowley, where they raised their two sons. Donn worked for Big Horn County Road and Bridge during most of those years.

When their sons left home and went to school, rather than learn how to knit, Donn and Kay became long-haul over-the-road truckers. As coast-to-coast, drop-and-hook drivers, they drove more than two million miles together through forty-eight states. Upon delivering their last load, they purchased a motorhome and (what else?) jumped behind the wheel and spent the next several winters primarily in Arizona, New Mexico, and Southern California. They absolutely loved that chapter of their lives. But alas, even the most exciting chapters necessarily conclude.

Their last several years were largely devoid of the adventure that defined their lives. Kay's cognitive decline and eventual Alzheimer's required Donn to become a full-time caretaker. Although the role broke his heart, he nevertheless filled it with exactness and dignity. Having outlived all of his siblings and his wife (by five months), Donn's life of love ended exactly as he lived it—happily and quietly. He passed peacefully on January 27, 2025, at his home in Fort Collins, Colorado.

He leaves behind his two sons, Kurt (Michelle) and James (Marilynn), and his eight grandchildren: Landon (Morgan), Alexandra, Addison, Abigail, Cortlen, Travis, Katherine, and Weston. Services will be held at the Cowley LDS Church on Saturday, February 15, at 10:00 a.m. Internment will be at the Cowley Cemetery.

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