Dorothy Earlen Kuretich (Griffin)

Dorothy Earlene Kuretich

January 21, 1934 – February 17, 2023

?Bowie, Colorado resident, Dorothy Kuretich passed away at the Paonia Care and Rehabilitation Center in Paonia on Friday, February 17, 2023. She was 89 years of age.

?Dorothy is survived by her two sons, Joseph Kuretich and Timothy Kuretich, three brothers, Irven Griffin, Glenn Griffin, and Michael Griffin and three sisters, Ann McIlhenny, Barbara Knoetzelmann, and Lola Chism, four grand-children, Uldene (Dwight) Kuretich VenJohn, Josh Kuretich, Tim Kuretich (deceased), and Jennifer (Tony) Wachowicz, and nine great grand-children.

?Dorothy was preceded in death by her Father, Earl Griffin, her mother, Ruth Griffin, her sister, Mary Buss, her brother, Dave Griffin, and her brother, Steve Griffin and her son Bill Kuretich.

Dorothy Earlene Kuretich was born on Jan 21, 1934 to Riley Earl and Amy Ruth Griffin of Paonia, Colorado and was the second of ten children born to Riley Earl and Amy Ruth Griffin. She had five brothers and four sisters. So, there was never a dull moment in the Griffin household. One of the schools she attended was at the “Spring Creek School House” up on “The Muddy”. There were twelve students at that outpost school and six of them were from the Griffin household. They lived two miles from the school and rode horses to attend the school. The Griffins that attended that school at that time was: Mary, Dorothy, Dave, Irven, Steve and Barbara.

?Dorothy spent most of her life in and around the Paonia area. She loved hunting and fishing with her family and friends and loved spending time with her family as much as possible. The last few years of her life was spent living with her brothers, Dave and Steve. After the two brothers passed, she had the privilege of having her sister, Barbara, live with her for the last year of her life. Dorothy loved listening to her favorite country music and reminiscing the old days with Barbara. She has an impressive library of hundreds of vinyl albums.

?Dorothy loved to cook and feed anyone who visited her. When anyone showed up at Dorothy’s house, there was plenty of food to go around. She was famous for her Christmas “Patitsa” and she grew a spectacularly extensive vegetable garden. Her son, Joe spent countless hours every year helping out with her garden and she made sure all the family had as much as they wanted from her garden.

?Dorothy also canned a lot of her food. She even canned some of her meat. She canned both venison and elk.

?She was always helping anyone whenever she could. She was very generous and invited many relatives and friends up for family get-togethers quite often. Whenever the family wanted to get together, it was always “up at Dorothy’s place”.

?Dorothy had an impressive stock of food. She swore that she would NEVER go hungry again (probably stemming from growing up in a family of twelve whereas sometimes you don’t always get as much as you want). So, another thing that most people didn’t know, She provided her family with as much meat as they could possibly want. And, I’m talking about a bag or box of frozen meat or vegetables at every visit.

?Dorothy lived a long full life and had many adventures that she would talk extensively about. She will be missed very much by us all.

?Any questions about Dorothy or donations to her memorial can be directed to Joe Kuretich in lieu of flowers please make a charitable donation to The St Jude Childrens research hospital.

?A celebration of life will take place in the spring. Services are under the direction of  Crippin Funeral Home, Montrose.