Dolores Elaine Thorpe

Dolores Elaine (Nelson) Thorpe—renamed Dee Dee by her grandchildren—was born June 13, 1936 in Chicago, Illinois and passed away peacefully at home September 4, 2025 ensconced in her favorite hymns and surrounded by family who loved her deeply and are having a hard time imagining the world without her.

Her husband Donald Elving Thorpe, (renamed Don Don by those same grandchildren), took pride in having married a “Chicago Hood”. He relished Dee Dee’s brilliance, savvy, and spunk. That spunk and savvy expressed itself in Dee Dee’s wonderful laugh, and in her love of sparkly clothes, bling, and leopard prints. It flashed forth in and empowered her mighty courage, generosity, love, and hospitality throughout her life. Along with her deep faith, it also sustained her during her journey with leukemia this past year. She passed from this world with words of gratitude flowing from her lips, periodically murmuring “how beautiful!”, “excellent!”, and “thank you” the morning she sailed to the other shore.

One nickname for Dee Dee was “the energizer bunny”. It would be hard to count all the people she welcomed into her home with hospitality, joy, and grace. Even in her eighties, she left most of us in the dust with her activity and her love of life. When leukemia hit her and she was no longer able to venture out with friends, she decided that her calling at that point in life was to encourage and affirm. In her interactions at hospital and clinic, and with visitors at home, her goal was to offer some word of encouragement and hope to anyone she encountered.

Dee Dee was the first child born to Harold and Vivian (Peterson) Nelson, who later welcomed her younger sister and brother, Carol and Chuck. They grew up in Andersonville, a Swedish community on the north side of Chicago. As a little girl, Dee Dee loved milk shakes; her bachelor uncles used to bring her to the local soda fountain to feed her chocolate malts until her tummy turned cold. She also loved the Chicago Cubs. Baseball mitt in hand and pig tails in her hair, she would ride the Chicago El to Wrigley Field all by herself to sit in the bleachers and cheer on the Cubs—an early indication of her tenacity.

Her mother grew up on a farm in Madrid, Iowa and Dee Dee relished summer visits to her grandparents on that farm. Norman Barr Camp in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin was another favorite place. There she played with friends, served as a life guard, and wowed the crowd by swimming five miles across the lake with aplomb.

Dee Dee attended Nicholas Senn High School in Chicago, Illinois followed by nurse’s training at Swedish Covenant Hospital. There she met Don Don who was working as a night orderly. As president of her nursing class and a prankster among classmates who became lifelong friends, Dee Dee was already an organized and focused woman. She was a bit intimidating to Don Don, but also friendly. And oh so beautiful. As a farm boy from the upper peninsula of Michigan, it took Don Don a while to get up the courage to ask her out. Once he did, his life was changed forever. The devotion, fun, laughter, and commitment they shared sustained and enlivened both of them through their courtship and nearly sixty-eight years of marriage.

During the time they were dating, Don Don entered The University of Michigan College of Engineering while also working full time. After they were married in Chicago on November 29, 1958, Dee Dee moved to Anne Arbor. Don Don’s grades improved dramatically. Dee Dee worked as a nurse in a psychiatric hospital, and in 1960 they welcomed their first child: Dianne Elise. When the nurses at the hospital put Dianne in Dee Dee’s arms as they left the hospital, Dee Dee burst into tears saying, “I don’t know what to do—I don’t know how to be a mom!” Nothing could be further from the truth. No child could ask for a more loving, supportive, determined, or energetic mother than Dee Dee. From their first breath, her children knew they were deeply, deeply loved. Beyond measure. There is no greater gift a parent can give a child.

Another daughter, Denise Elaine, and a son, David Erik arrived in rapid succession (yes…the DET family). Thanks to Dee Dee, their life together in Countryside and Hinsdale, Illinois and in Arvada and Golden, Colorado was filled with learning, creativity, fun, delicious and budget-friendly meals, and exposure to the wider world around them. From train trips into downtown Chicago to see the Christmas lights and to eat in the Walnut Room at Marshall Fields, to visits to the Art Institute and the Museum of Science and Industry, to car camping across the country, to adventurous travel with relatives living in Africa, to support for friends and activities—and through encouragement and tenderness during both difficult and joyous seasons of life—Dee Dee’s love was steadfast and sure.

She sewed matching dresses for Dianne and Denise, delighted in David’s efforts to excavate the backyard in Hinsdale with his Tonka trucks to build a garage for his dad, spoke out at the PTA, canvassed door to door encouraging votes for school bonds, volunteered at Bronco games to raise money for the Golden High School marching band, initiated a Stephen Ministry and participated in the Care Team at church, organized multi-day gift wrapping extravaganzas for kids in children’s homes in Lithuania, and volunteered faithfully at Serving Kids distributing clothing for families in Jefferson County schools. Her routine birthday and Christmas gift request was new children’s underwear because Serving Kids seemed never to have enough, and she already had everything she wanted.

When they first started dating, Don Don received a letter from his stepmother telling him that she knew Dee Dee’s parents and that he better treat Dee Dee well. Don Don spent the rest of his life trying to do just that. They were an amazing team. As their son David remarked in tribute at an anniversary celebration a few years ago, “they have moral cores of steel”. Church communities shaped their life as a family in profound and enduring ways. Early years at Hinsdale Covenant Church widened their faith and their understanding of the promise that God loves the whole world. Not just the known and familiar communities that give us comfort and security, but all of God’s vast creation—friend and stranger alike.

After the family moved to Colorado and the kids were in school full time, Dee Dee earned a B.S in Nursing at Colorado Women’s College and later a Master’s Degree in Education at CU Denver. She worked as a school nurse in Jefferson County, Colorado for thirty years. Along with Don Don, she developed a cherished family of friends, both through her work and in their years at Lakewood Covenant Church and Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church.

The richness of Dee Dee’s later life was fed by the gift of grandchildren, along with their spouses and families: Andrew McCallister (Melissa McMillan), Christopher McCallister, Kelsey Arnold (Sean Arnold), Rytė, Aira, and Whitney Weistart, and Gustav Thorpe. Her heart beamed with joy, pride, and delight in each of them. And then the frosting on the cake: great-grandchildren!! Hailey, Olivia, Joshua, Zoe, and Mia McCallister danced their way into her heart. She and Don Don reveled in every opportunity to take care of them until leukemia hit hard and she was unable to tend to them on her own, but still cherished their visits and stories.

Her life with grandchildren and great grandchildren was marked by sprinkles and “whupped cream”, splashing in big bathtubs with no-tear “shampoop”, Swedish pancakes, family trips and cruises, special individual adventures with each grandchild, Labor Day weekends with the Anderson framily (friends who are family), “the regular” lunches at Nordstroms with Kelsey, romping in piles of dried leaves, squinting and searching for the bus after family tea at the Brown Palace, graduations, weddings, sporting events, music and dance performances, weeks in North Carolina driving, cooking, tending, and laughing, slippery slides and bubbles at Camp Don Don and Dee Dee, and movies in the basement in big theatre chairs with Dee Dee always ensuring movie candy and popcorn in abundance.

When Dee Dee flew away to God’s heart earlier this month she joined her beloved daughter Dianne (Nan Nan) who welcomed her home, her step-granddaughter Whitney Weistart, her parents, brothers and sister-in-law, and many friends.

Dee Dee is survived by her life partner and co-conspirator Don Don, whom she described as her “rock who helped me learn that life can be filled with fun”, her son-in-law (and in love) Tom McCallister, her daughter Denise and husband John Weistart, her son David and life partner Patty Berryman with children and grandchildren Natalie, Sam, and Noah Dye and Alex Berryman, her grandchildren and great grandchildren, sister and brother, much loved nieces, nephews, and sisters and brother-in-law, cherished friends, and friends of her children, some of whom she nurtured as a second mother.

We are deeply grateful for the extraordinary care Dee Dee received from Dr. Christine McMahon and her team at UC Health Blood Disorders and Cell Therapies Center, the wonderful caretakers at Colorado Caregivers and Companions, gentle and amazing Bessy Acosta and Maria Morales who tended her through the night as she crossed over, Chelsea from TRU hospice care, and friends and family who supported us on this journey.

A memorial service for Dee Dee will take place on Saturday, October 11 at 1:00 p.m. at Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church, 11500 W. 20th Ave., Lakewood, Colorado, 80215.

In lieu of flowers, Dee Dee’s family encourages gifts to any of the following:

Leukemia Research at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Gifts may be made online at giving.cu.edu/DoloresThorpe. If you wish to write a check, please send your gift in memory of Dolores Thorpe to: University of Colorado Foundation, PO Box 17126, Denver CO 80217. On the memo line of the check, please note IMO Dolores Thorpe and Leukemia Research Fund and make it payable to the CU Foundation.

The Dr. Dianne McCallister Memorial Resident Scholarship at Coalition for Physician Wellbeing at https://www.bethejoy.org/scholarship

Serving Kids at Jeffco Schools Foundation https://www.jeffcoschoolsfoundation.org/servingkids.html#:~:text= Staffed by volunteers, the Serving, Public Schools who needs it.

Shepherd of the Hills Presbyterian Church https://www.soth.net