Kay Palmer Graham

Aug. 11, 1940 – Aug. 1, 2024

Three months after she graduated from high school — at the top of her class — Kay Palmer married the love of her life, Donn Graham. Theirs was more than a love story. It was a story of hard work and adventure, of companionship and compassion, of kindness and friendship. Just a few weeks before their 66th wedding anniversary, Kay Graham passed away in her sleep on August 1, 2024, at their home in Fort Collins, Colorado.

She was born in Murray, Utah, on August 11, 1940. She spent her youth laboring on her family’s South Jordan, Utah, farm. When she married Donn on September 8, 1958, they moved to San Diego, California, where he was stationed in the U.S. Navy. Thus began a life of travel that took them from California to South Carolina, from Washington to Maine and from Massachusetts to Idaho, Colorado and Wyoming.

They eventually made their home and spent most of their lives in Cowley, where they raised their two sons, Kurt and James. When their sons left home, the restless empty nesters began driving truck from coast to coast. They spent a total of nine years on the road and drove nearly two million miles together through 48 states. When they finally retired, they did what came naturally, they hit the open road — this time in a motorhome, where they explored additional highways and byways throughout the American West.

As that nomadic chapter came to a close, they settled at the home of their son James in Fort Collins. By then, dementia had begun to steal away Kay’s keen mind. Although the ravages of a cruel and memory-robbing disease took her mind and body, her soul never faded — her unique and ebullient character remained. She never lost her positive, pleasant perspective. She couldn’t talk, but she could (and always did) smile.

Kay is survived by her husband; sons Kurt (Michelle) and James (Marilynn); and eight grandchildren, Landon (Morgan), Alexandra, Addison, Abigail, Cortlen, Travis, Katherine and Weston.

She was interred at the Cowley cemetery on August 9 in a private family service.