Donald Earl Collins

Donald Earl Collins, was born in Newton, Iowa on March 31, 1932. He was the sixth child born to Forrest Malcom Collins and Sarah Anne Dew.

Don had 9 brothers and sisters in all: 94 year old Margery Ives lives in Port Orchard, Washington,.the following siblings presided him in death: Maxine Burk, lived all her life in Iowa. Dale Oliver, Paul, Dorothy May Palmer, and James all lived in Washington State. He has a half brother, Albert, 74 who lives in Spokane, Washington and a half sister, Betty Parker, 71 of Provo, Utah. A second half-brother, John, is deceased.

Don’s parents moved to Sprague, Washington in the mid-1930s. His father worked on Grand Coulee Dam. Work on the dam employed 8000 workers. It was one of the largest construction projects of its time. Workers made .80 cents an hour. When Don’s mother became ill in 1936, Francis Miller, a young woman in Sprague, came in the home to care for her. Sarah Anne Dew passed away in 1937. Later Don’s father married Francis Miller. The family moved back to Iowa around 1940 and Don’s father went back to work in the coal mines. Unsatisfied with the move, two years later, the family returned to Washington, to Kennewick where Don attended school. His father worked as a carpenter.

Don’s father passed away in 1950. Don’s older sister, Dorothy, introduced him to one of her girlfriends, Mary Valene Palmer. Valene was living in Pasco, Washington with her oldest brother taking care of his three children.

About the same time, Valene introduced Dorothy to her oldest brother, Arden, my father. Don enlisted in the Navy in early 1951 at the beginning of the Korean War. Arden and Dorothy married in January, 1952. Don and Valene married three weeks later on February 15, 1952 by her uncle Philo Edwards, who was a stake president in Orem Utah. So you see, I came to know the Collins family pretty well. My Aunt Valene had married Don Collins and his sister Dorothy Mae became my stepmother.

Soon after they married Don and Valene moved to Astoria, Oregon so Don could be close to his base. While in the Navy Don was assigned to a fueling vessel and he spent nearly a year in Japan. One day on a fueling run, enemy torpedoes barely missed the hull of their vessel. He was discharged from the military in February, 1955. Don and Valene then moved to Pasco, Washington where he did carpenter work. It was there that he studied the gospel with the missionaries and accepted baptism into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on May 14, 1955.

Don and Valene were sealed in the Logan, Utah Temple in September, 1956.
Around 1957, the couple moved to Logan Utah where Don worked for Casper’s Ice Cream, owned by his brother in Law, Elmo Palmer. Valene’s mother was by then a widow and needed some assistance. Valene and Don gladly provided help for her.

Later Don worked two jobs. Driving to Ogden, he worked for a disposal service in the early mornings then returned to Logan to work a late shift at Cash Valley cheese. Later still while in Logan he maintained, repaired, and replaced commercial sewing machines at a clothes manufacturing company.

For many years Don helped care for Mary Elizabeth Palmer, his mother-in-law. He and Valene took her mother on several trips during her last years. Don and Valene moved into a new home in Logan in 1962 and Mary came to live with them.

Although Don had no biological children of his own, over the years he helped raise several other children. This included six of Valene’s nieces and nephews, Colleen Parker’s youngsters: Jeffrey Allen, Lee Ann, Danny, Shelly, Denise, and David Paul. He also took in two foster girls, sisters and raised them as his own.

In 1974 Don and Valene moved from Logan to Kirkland, Washington where they bought a new home in this fast-growing community Don worked at an outerwear garment factory maintaining and repairing sewing machines.

While living in Seattle in 1978, my wife, Joan, contracted pneumonia and was down in bed for six weeks. Don and Valene took our two pre-school youngsters into their home night and day for over a month. All my children loved their uncle Don. Our two girls, Chantal and Nicole are here at this memorial service. My young son called his uncle Don, Apple Don. One day Brett flew into their house from the attached garage and announced, “Apple Don cut his finger on the saw, and he didn’t even cuss.”

In the year 2000, Don and Valene moved to Port Orchard, Washington. Don retired from full-time employment but he worked part-time as a Walmart greeter. They loved their time there. Valene passed away in April, 2009. About 18 months later, in September, 2010 Don Married Colleen Parker, Valene’s younger sister. They lived together here in Nampa hardly more than a stone’s throw from this church building.

Joan and I spent a couple of hours with Don and Colleen three weeks ago, and I’m so glad we did. He told me over and over that his weakened condition was just temporary, he’d be back in full swing in a few weeks. He never complained about his failing health condition while we were in his presence.

The number of extended family members in attendance today as well as so many Church friends, bears witness that Don Earl Collins was a man loved and admired by those who knew him. He was a humble man, not boastful or prideful. He was a gentle man, a giving man, a forgiving man—a peacemaker. Someone once told me he was a simple man. If the speaker meant Don was not conflicted or complicated in his approach to life and living, I agree with the statement.
Don was not a simple-minded man. He was talented with his hands and with his head. He was a fine carpenter and wood worker. Over the years he made everything from bird houses to rose trellises to bookshelves and more.

• I remember when I first met Don he owned a 1935 Ford panel delivery truck that he named Don’s cuddle Buggy.
• I remember him tall and straight in his navy uniform.
• I remember that years later he drove all the way to Indianapolis, Indiana to retrieve Colleen and her six children and brought them to Logan where they could be properly cared for.
• I remember that for years in the 70s and 80s he used to gather scrap lumber from building sites in his yellow pickup to burn in their wood burning stove.
• I remember too in Kirkland when he contracted a most severe case of the garage sale sickness.
• I remember how he served every week in the Seattle Temple.
• I remember how he liked to tease people and tell funny stories.
• I remember how patient he was with Valene over the years. She suffered for decades with multiple scurosis.
• I remember how seriously he took his church callings

Don Collins established a wonderful example for us. He loved his family. He took his mother-in-law on trips and even canned fruit with her. He devoted his life to the care of his wife Valene for 57 years. Jeff Parker confided in me recently that his mother had been better cared for by Don then during any time he could remember. He embraced work famously. When he was 60+ years old he even tried roofing homes. For six decades he was a great friend to me. Joan and I and our children loved him very much. He will be missed.