Dolores Anne Groves (Spooner)
Feb. 28, 1927 — April 27, 2022

MIDDLETOWN, Calif. — Dolores Anne Groves passed away peacefully at her residence near Middletown, California on the afternoon of Wednesday, April 27, due to natural causes. She was 95 years old at the time of her death.

Dolores, known to most friends as “Dee,” was born on Feb. 28, 1927, at the Saint Helena Sanitarium Hospital in what is now known as Deer Park, California, to Clara and Albert Spooner of Middletown, and was baptized at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church several days later.

Dee spent most of her youth helping out on the family farm which was known as the “Spooner Dairy” at that time. One of her chores after school was to find the cows that were grazing somewhere in the woods and bring them in for the night.

Several years after her father’s death in 1938, her mother Clara opened “The Mountain Garden Florist” on the family property, and Dee was the unsung backbone of her mother's business growing flowers, and making and delivering floral arrangements and corsages until her mother’s death in 1984.

Dee attended Middletown schools with the exception of several years during World War II when she boarded at Ursuline High School in Santa Rosa and St. Vincent’s High School in Vallejo due to transportation issues.

It was during her sophomore year at Ursuline that she first attended a concert of the Santa Rosa Symphony and became a lifelong lover of classical music and fan of the Santa Rosa Symphony.

Dee graduated from Middletown High School in 1945. After graduating from high school, she went to work as a telephone operator.

A few years later, Dee met Rex Groves, who was filling gas at his father’s Union 76 station on the corner of Calistoga and Young Street in Middletown. They were married on April 25, 1948, just down the street at St. Joseph’s Church.

The young couple first lived in Tempe, Arizona, and then Chico, California, as Rex finished his studies and teaching credential.

After Rex graduated from Chico State College in January of 1951, they lived for several years in Sacramento where Rex worked as an elementary school teacher.

During a drive through the Napa Valley on the way home to visit their parents one spring morning in 1952, they stopped in Calistoga to inquire about possible teaching positions at Calistoga Elementary School, and Rex was hired on the spot.

They lived in Calistoga for the next 26 years, during which time son Wayne was born. In later years, Dee worked as a seamstress and clerk at Funke’s Men’s Clothing Store. During her stay in Calistoga, she was active in the Ladies Guild of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Catholic Church, taught catechism, volunteered as an election worker, and was active in the Calistoga Music Boosters and PTA.

After a new house was built for Dee’s mother at the family property near Middletown, Dee and Rex relocated back to the old Spooner home in 1978 and from that time, Dee worked as a secretary receptionist at Earle Wrieden’s real estate office in Middletown until it closed in 1992, and later worked as a florist at “Flowers by Wendy.”

After Rex passed away in 1997, Dee continued to live in the old family house until it burned in the 2015 Valley Fire. After the fire, she relocated to the newer house next door that survived the fire and lived there until her death.

Dee was a lifelong member of St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Middletown (even while living in Calistoga), where she provided flower arrangements each Sunday and intricate pine garlands at Christmas for many years.

She was an avid gardener and enjoyed hiking and camping. She loved classical music and was a season ticket holder at the Santa Rosa Symphony for over 25 years.

After returning to Middletown, she was a member of the Middletown Lioness Club, volunteered at the Middletown Sheriff’s Office, Middletown Senior Center and delivered Meals on Wheels.

Dee had a warm and engaging personality that always made everyone feel at home and a way of brightening their day no matter how difficult the situation.

Being the youngest of a large family, she cared for many elder family members to the end. She also had a very soft spot in her heart for cats.

Dee was predeceased by her parents, Clara and Albert Spooner; husband, Rex Groves; her brothers, Laurence and Francis Spooner; and her sisters, Mary Phelps and Carmel Copeland.

She was survived by her son, Wayne Groves; daughter-in-law, Yuko Groves; grandson, Joseph Groves; nephews (and spouses) Raymond, John (Bonnie) and Steven (Linda) Copeland; grand-nephews, Christopher (Beth) and Matthew (Rachel) Copeland; grand-niece, Lisa Copeland; great-grand nephews, Joshua and Jacob Copeland; and great-grand niece, Pippa Copeland, whom she met for the first time several days before her death.

She was also survived by faithful caregivers, Kenneth Olson, Lisa Rogers, Millie Simon and Bep Zolczynsky, as well as numerous friends.

Friends and family are invited to attend a memorial mass which will be celebrated on Saturday, July 16, at 2 p.m. at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Middletown, with interment at the Middletown Cemetery to follow.