Dolores Ann "Lorry" Dahl

Dolores Ann “Lorry” Dahl was born in Leavenworth, Washington, to Welcome Friend Sauer and Celia Miriam (Knowles) Sauer, on April 20, 1929. She died with family at her bedside of pneumonia complicated with pulmonary fibrosis on June 27, 2023.  She was 94 years old.

Lorry was an outstanding student who graduated from Leavenworth High School a year early, at age 17. She was chosen as the 1946 Apple Blossom Princess from Leavenworth and rode the festival float through the city of Wenatchee.

Like her parents and her two brothers, Lorry went on many hiking and horseback journeys into the Cascade lakes in an era when those places were almost untouched. She particularly took pleasure in remembering adventures led by her mother with her childhood friends, hiking together in the forest to favorite camps near fishing streams. From childhood she also enjoyed gardening, particularly growing her own vegetables and fruit like her father. She enjoyed cooking and flourished in her later years on a vegan diet.

At Washington State University she studied history and education, earning her bachelor’s degree in four years. At WSU, she met Wesley E. “Bing” Dahl, a star athlete at WSU from Spokane and a veteran of the war in Europe.  When he completed his university degree a year before her, they were married in 1948, beginning a marriage that lasted 68 years until Bing died in 2016.  Bing worked as a teacher, guidance counselor and coach at Colville, Kent Meridian, and Evergreen high schools. Lorry was the devoted mother of four children and later became an elementary school substitute teacher for the Highline Schools and a dedicated tutor in an instructional resource program for Native American students in the district.

Lorry was always a reader and maintained her interests in history and politics with steady input from publications and the national news. She made considerable use of the Internet for news and communications with her children and grandchildren. Lorry also had an interest in spiritual writers, particularly J. Walter Fiscus, the founder of Partners in Prayer. She set aside time for her own writing and kept journals of her spiritual thinking.  Lorry and Bing were active members of John Knox Presbyterian Church for more than fifty years.

Lorry and Bing loved to travel.  Because of their good health, she and Bing had thirty years of retirement together with many adventures across the US and in Europe, including stays in several great cities and a rewarding backpacking trip in Turkey.

Lorry was preceded in death by her husband, Bing Dahl, her father, Welcome Friend Sauer, her mother, Celia Miriam (Knowles) Sauer, and her two brothers, Leonard and Gary Sauer. She is survived by her four children: Eric Dahl (Margaret), Ellie Dahl, LeAnn Eernisse (Doug), Chris Dahl (Hope); seven grandchildren, five great grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews and their children.

Confident in her faith, she accepted her mortality with a clear mind.  She died in the presence of her immediate family, telling them, “I am fine.”

Lorry’s ashes will be interred at the Tahoma National Cemetery at the gravesite of her beloved Bing.

A celebration of her life will be held October 28 at 2:00 PM at John Knox Presbyterian Church,109 SW Normandy Road, Normandy Park, Washington 98166.

To share your condolences and memories of Lorry or to see more photographs, please visit her Tribute Wall, located above.

Gifts may be made “In Memory of Lorry Dahl” at

John Knox Presbyterian Church

www.johnknox.church/giving

206-241-1606

HumanGood Foundation FBO JP

To support charitable programs of Judson Park

206-870-6602

The Greater Leavenworth Museum

https://www.leavenworthmuseum.org/support

509-548-0728

- Care Entrusted to Emmick Family Funeral Home -

Please direct Memorial Donations to the facility/charity listed in the obituary above