Salonen, Donna Louise

Donna Louise Salonen - age: 73
(December 01, 1944 to July 13, 2018 )
Resident of Ukiah, California

Obituary:
Donna Salonen of Ukiah died in the early hours of July 13, at the age of 73, at home in Ukiah, California. Born December 1, 1944, in Long Beach, California, Donna was the second child of Cleta and Henry Dutton. She is survived by her husband, Keith Salonen; her sister Susan Dutton, of Castelfranco d'Oglio, Italy; her brother Hank Dutton, of Los Angeles; stepsister Andrea and husband Dennis Lee of Eagle Grove, Iowa; daughter Shannon Page and husband Mark Ferrari, of Eastsound, Washington; son Erik Page, wife Page Hersey, and grandson, Julian Jade Page, of Fairfax, California; and uncle and aunt Dan and Ginger Cotten, of Lake Oswego, Oregon. She also leaves behind many loving cousins, nieces, and nephews; in-laws; and dear friends. Donna grew up in southern California, and attended the University of California, Los Angeles, with her first husband, Bob Page. She excelled in school and never lost her love for learning, for making order out of chaos, and for uncovering and explaining how things tick. Donna and Bob moved to San Francisco and then Mendocino County in the early 1970s. They divorced a few years later, though they remained lifelong friends. Donna spent most of her career as an accounting technician for the Mendocino County Office of Education. Her legacy lives on at MCOE in the form of "Donna days," extra floating holidays employees get most years due to a series of complex calculations she made after noticing irregularities in the employment contract. Donna and Keith married in 1984. Keith was the head groundskeeper for Mendocino County before retirement; his legacy is the topiary dragons at the county offices on Low Gap Road. Before and particularly after their retirement, Donna and Keith loved to travel, both domestically and overseas. They made many enjoyable and fascinating trips, making sure to come home with souvenir magnets to arrange on their fridgein geographical order. The magnet count is 320 (171 U.S., the remainder from overseas). Donna developed bladder cancer last year. She underwent chemotherapy last summer, surgery in the fall, and immunotherapy this spring. The treatments seemed to be working at first, but the cancer resurged, and she entered hospice care at the end of May. A memorial service will be held Saturday, October 6, at 2:00 p.m. at the Eversole Mortuary in Ukiah, California. In lieu of flowers, the family would welcome donations in Donna's name to Phoenix Hospice of mendocino County.