Dolly Turnblad

1929 - 2022

Dolly Turnblad
April 18, 1929 - November 1, 2022
Dolly Ann Turnblad died peacefully in her home on Russian Hill after a long and adventurous life. She was 93.
She often said: "I've led a wonderful life and cherish all my memories."
Born in New York, she also spent parts of her childhood in Los Angeles and Grosse Point. She met her late husband, John, at Stanford University, where they were married in 1948. Along with their 3 children, they lived and worked in various cities in the US, Europe and Africa.
Dolly was always very curious and interested in everyone she met and everyplace she went and she and John travelled extensively in all 6 continents for over 50 years. After John's death in 1997, Dolly continued her travelling. Her last major trip was to Denmark for the marriage of a granddaughter in 2018.
Dolly was a great lover of the performing arts wherever she was. For her last 30+ years in San Francisco, she was a regular and faithful usher at many venues for dance, opera, symphony, really any musical performance.
She also was an avid outdoors woman, skiing into her 70s. But her great joy was hiking; she was an active member of the Mt. Tam hikers until the pandemic hit. As with her ushering, she made many great friendships there.
And she enjoyed volunteering at her local public school. The teachers and students loved her guidance and support.
The pandemic hit her hard, cutting her off from social interaction and physical activities.
Dolly loved and was loved by her family and friends.
Ever since she worked for the Stanford Daily in the late 40's, Dolly was a real news-junkie, informing herself daily from various newspapers, tv-news programs and the internet. In recent years she was very disturbed by the increasing hate and violence both in the US and abroad. She would be happy if you would make a donation to Amnesty International or Doctors Without Borders.