The heart of the mountain takes a tough hit

  • [photo by Mel Weinstein]

    [photo by Mel Weinstein]

By Patric Hedlund, TME

Dolores “Dee” Bumgardner had a way of making the most difficult work fun. It was her talent, but it was also a discipline in both her personal and community life. She could smile, laugh and sparkle while inspiring people to accomplish the impossible—with a joke.

Bumgardner was a leader in the Mountain Communities who seemed born with that volunteer’s magical spirit which—prior to the covid-19 pandemic quarantine—made our regional spring, summer and winter festival cycle hum along with a sense of joyful participation.

It is a major blow to this entire mountain that on Easter morning this week, at the…(please see below to view full stories and photographs)

Photo captions:

Left: Dee Bumgardner, community leader was Relay for Life co-founder, and at VFW Memorial Day. Below: Dee, with pink streaks in her hair, with June Schmidt at a “Making Strides Against Cancer” march for survivors in Bakersfield in 2012.

Above: Dee Bumgardner was Honorary Mayor of Fiesta Days in August 2011. She made a joke about waiting to make her Honorary Mayor until she had lost her hair and had to wear a wig.

With a laugh, ‘Ms. Dee’ called herself ‘Batter Babe’ as she prepared flapjack fixings for the VFW’s Fiesta Days Pancake Breakfasts.

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This is part of the April 9, 2021 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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