Patty Dykstra, 70, passed away peacefully at her home in Grand Junction on May 9 after a longer battle with pulmonary disease.

She was born Patty Lowe in Boulder and grew up in Alamosa. She attended Alamosa High School (class of 1965), and graduated from Adams State in 1969. She taught elementary school briefly in Center following her graduation from Adams State.

Patty’s father, Walter S. Lowe, served as Conejos County Coroner and owned the Lowe Funeral Homes in Alamosa, La Jara and Antonito until his death in 1980. Patty is also preceded in death by her mother Mary Louise, who died of polio in 1951 and her adoptive mother, Luella (Girard) Lowe, who passed away in 1996.

Patty married A.C. “Clair” Woodward of Alamosa after the two met as students at Adams State in 1966. They became a railroad family and moved to Durango and, later, Grand Junction, where they settled and raised two children before divorcing in 1987. Patty taught kindergarten in Grand Junction for 20 years and later married Tom Dykstra there in 1996.

She is survived by her husband Tom and their beloved cat Mabel, daughter Jodi Woodward of Grand Junction and son Brian and grandchildren Lukas and Helena Woodward of Aarhus, Denmark; a brother, Mike Lowe of Everett, WA; a sister, Wanda O’Toole of Lincoln, NE; and a sister, Nancy Lowe of Pueblo; a brother-in-law Jeff (Melanie) Woodward of Alamosa; a nephew Kyle of Alamosa and nieces Tanya Allen of Cañon City and Penni Shalberg of Cheyenne Wells.

A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, May 16, at 11 a.m. at the Callahan Edfast Mortuary in Grand Junction. A private inurnment at Veterans Cemetery there will follow.