Dolores Ann “Lorry” Dahl

Dolores Ann “Lorry” Dahl

1929 - 2023

Dolores Ann “Lorry” Dahl was born in Leavenworth, WA. to Welcome Friend Sauer and Celia Miriam (Knowles) Sauer, on April 20, 1929. She died in Seattle on June 27, 2023 with family at her bedside. 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 School District 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.

Dolores was preceded in death by her husband of 68 years, Wesley E. “Bing” Dahl  her parents, and her two brothers Leonard and Gary Sauer. She leaves four children:  Eric Dahl (Margaret), Ellie Dahl, LeAnn Eernisse (Doug)  and Chris Dahl (Hope); seven grandchildren, five great grandchildren, many nieces and nephews, and their children.

Lorry’s ashes will be interred at the Tahoma National  Cemetery at the gravesite of her beloved Bing. A celebration of her life for family and friends will be held October 28 at 2:00 p.m. at John Knox Presbyterian  Church, 109 SW Normandy Road, Normandy Park, WA. To learn more about Lorry’s life & share memories and photographs, visit her Obituary and Tribute Wall at: www.emmickfunerals.com/obituary/Dolores-Dahl