Dolores Pauline Hofmeister

Dolores Pauline (Haynes) Hofmeister passed away March 8, 2019. Born December 12, 1930 to Lula (Erikson) and Paul Haynes in Fleming, Colorado, she grew up in Haxtun,  and attended both Haxtun and Holyoke High School graduating from Haxtun High School with the class of 1948. Dolores attended beauty school in Denver and then decided teaching was a vocation in which she could influence young lives. She and Melvin often laughed about the fact that Dolores’ future mother-in-law, Gladys Hofmeister as the Phillips County School Superintendent, hired her for Dolores’ first teaching assignment at Sunbeam country school north of Holyoke a couple of years before Dolores decided that Melvin was the man she would marry.  After their marriage, they lived on a family farm south of Paoli then resided in the Holyoke and Haxtun areas.  She stopped teaching for a short time after the birth of their son, Brad. Dolores taught at Highland Center, Rockland, Columbine Elementary in Jefferson County, Julesburg Elementary and concluded her teaching career at Haxtun Elementary. She received her teaching degree from Colorado State Teaching College, now known as the University of Northern Colorado spending several summers on the road going back and forth to her classes.

Dolores liked being outside and thoroughly enjoyed all of her animals including horses, cats, and dogs. She befriended numerous stray cats and dogs who found their way to their house whether on accident or on purpose. She particularly enjoyed riding horses with friends and family when she was younger. She loved being in contact with her classmates and looked forward for weeks to their class reunion celebrations, and seeing former students at community events such as the Haxtun Corn Festival. She was very close to several of her cousins and loved attending family get-togethers. Dolores was an avid collector of newspaper clippings of her grandson Wade’s school, 4H and FFA activities and shared them with visitors. In recent years, she lived in the Fort Morgan area to be closer to her son Brad, his wife Cyndi and her much loved grandson Wade.

Dolores was preceded in death by her mother, father, stepfather Paul Clements and her brother Glen. She is survived by her son Brad, wife Cyndi, grandson Wade of Fort Morgan and numerous cousins.

 A celebration of life will be held at the Haxtun United Methodist Church in Haxtun, Colorado on March 15, 2019 at 10:30 A.M. and internment followed the services at the Haxtun Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, please consider inquiring about donating platelets when giving blood donations, in honor of Dolores’ life. 

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