Dolores Virginia Meier – local pioneer

Dolores Virginia Meier passed away on March 20, 2005. Known as
Dee to her friends, she was born in Guerneville to parents Harry
and Ruby (Walker) Perry. Her father was from the Azores Islands and
her mother was descended from pioneers who came to California by
way of the Oregon Trail in the summer of 1853. There are
well-documented genealogical records on her grandfather’s maternal
side that date back to 1630 that tell of coming through the
wilderness, as it was called in the New World, and settling on the
Connecticut River near Hartford and Windsor. Dolores was raised by
her maternal grandparents, John and Mary Walker, after her mother
died of pneumonia at age 24 when Dolores was two years old. She
grew up on the family’s Rancho Del Lago, which was part of a
Spanish Land Grant and later became part of what is now Armstrong
Woods State Park, a cherished spot for family members. She
graduated in the class of 1943 from Analy High School in Sebastopol
and was working at Sunsweet Products when she met and married
Rudolf Rudy Meier in January 1947. He was a machinist at the
original Healdsburg Auto Parts on North Street. They lived in a two
room cement floor cabin on Pozzan Road when they had their first
son, Gary, in 1952. She told stories of heating water outside on a
campfire and no indoor plumbing. They had an opportunity to buy
Leonard Avila’s small engine repair shop; they painted over
Leonard’s name and it became Rudy’s Repair Service, later Rudy’s
Auto Repair, which they owned and operated at the same location at
438 Healdsburg Avenue for 38 years. In 1953, Dolores got her first
real home, a small Victorian farmhouse at 242 Lincoln Street in
Healdsburg, which they purchased for $6,000, and where they had
their second and third sons, Gregory and Glenn. Tragedy struck
again in her life when her 3-year-old son Glenn was hit by a
speeding car on Fitch Street while playing with the neighborhood
children in what was the safest, quiet small town. Dolores spent
the next 43 years taking care of her very special needs child, who
was the light of her life. The family was blessed with a fourth
son, Jeffrey, when they moved to their brand new home up by the
newly-built high school, where she blossomed to become a very
strong, sweet, energetic mother. She loved her home that became her
life-long hobby as she learned to decorate and re-decorate, always
on a slim budget while raising the fast-growing boys. She was the
treasurer of the Tigers CB club for many years. She taught herself
landscape design and, with the boys’ help, created a beautiful yard
that is filled with many roses of every color and every kind of
flower that would grow, including a large Koi pond and waterfall, a
little piece of Heaven in her backyard. In the late 1960s she was
an avid antique bottle collector having discovered the path of the
old slough that ran behind many of the old homes on Lincoln Street
where she unearthed dozens of perfectly preserved relics of
Healdsburg’s past. She became a sleuth of sorts and discovered an
old Healdsburg dumpsite near what is now March Avenue where the
hobby continued. Many enjoyable hours were spent with her teenaged
sons, carefully excavating, like self-taught archeologists. In her
early years she loved to hunt and fish. She had many pets
throughout her life, and they were very important to her. She
taught her sons to rescue and feed a baby bird with an eyedropper.
She gave the gifts of music and song to her family, but when
necessary she could be as tough as nails. She had a strong, quiet
resolve that life would just keep going on no matter what happened.
She was predeceased by her husband of 53 years, Rudy Meier, her son
Glenn, and granddaughter Chelsea. She leaves behind loving friends
and family including her dear sister Lucille Estes of Boonville;
sons Gary and Jeff Meier, son Greg and his wife Kelly Meier and
their children Shaina and Rudy of Healdsburg; grandchildren Jessica
Feeney of Idaho, Ronnie and Jessica Bray; sister-in-law Ruby Meier
of Cloverdale; numerous nieces and nephews; and dearest friend Miss
Mert. She will always be loved and missed, and we are in comfort
knowing that her job is done; she is at rest, not in pain, is in
the arms of her Lord and is at peace. Services were held on
Saturday, March 26th at Fred Young & Co. in Cloverdale. In lieu
of flowers, she would like donations sent to the Healdsburg Animal
Shelter.