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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 7, 2007 - 03:01am PT
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Does anyone remember Donna Pritchett? For some reason I have been thinking about her. She was a lovely spirit who was in Yosemite in those golden years. She was sleeping in the back seat of a car, while friends drove, and they had some sort of accident. Donna merely slid from the seat onto the floor but severed her spine and was thereafter paralyzed. She did reasonably well, in a courage rehabilitation, but finally her health declined, I suspect because she had been an active soul, always out and about, and the lack of movement, the pain of it all... wore away her ability to fight any longer. She died rather suddenly, if I recall.
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nita
climber
chico ca
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I am pretty sure I met Donna through Anne Marie, right before her car accident. So most of my memories of her, she is in a wheel chair. I can picture her so clearly- in her park service uniform, struggling with her daily living.
Her job was to bring the park up to date for physically disabled people. She would often ask me for help with little things, her doorknob pull tester, pushing her wheel chair around, help getting her mail etc.. It was sad when she died........
edit: I used to work with the guy who was driving the car when they crashed, he was a hard drinker-hard dude.
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chappy
Social climber
ventura
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Pat,
I had completely forgotten about Donna until your reminder. Life is cruel sometime...she didn't deserve what happened to her. It was a sad thing to see happen to a good person.
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 7, 2007 - 04:17pm PT
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Thanks for those thoughts. I find myself clinging to memories of special spirits of the past.
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nita
climber
chico ca
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Blinny, their were two male- hard drinkers in the car that day. Maybe, my memory has the wrong hard drinker, driving?
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chappy
Social climber
ventura
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Nita,
I definitely remember one of the two though I am struggling with his name...Tim?? Definitely bad company and an alcoholic. That is what is so troubling. A nice healthy athletic girl like Donna having her life ruined because of some loser...makes me MADD. Mark against drunk drivers...
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WBraun
climber
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Mark Chappy
It wasn't Tim Fitzgerald that was driving when Donna got thrown in the car and became a paraplegic. It was the cook at the Lodge Cafeteria. He fell asleep at the wheel and hit a rock.
Tim Fitzgerald actually took care of Donna for a long time before she committed suicide by overdosing on pills.
Tim Fitzgerald was actually a really good guy.
Donna was just a bag of bones and skin after her accident. Once me and Glen Paul drove her to Tuolumne meadows and carried her around all day.
It was sad.
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 8, 2007 - 12:25am PT
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Thanks, Werner, for that clarification. I hadn't known how she died.
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Anne-Marie Rizzi
climber
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This was another tragic event in my life.
Donna was very athletic and we shared some activities such as riding bikes around the Valley and skiing at Ostrander, but I don't remember if she climbed. She was great friends with Bev, however, so maybe they climbed together.
Her paralysis occurred before the thinking changed about what paralyzed people could do. I remember visiting her in the hospital at Reno and she was talking brightly about doing river trips and other supported activities while her rehab people told her she was being entirely unrealistic.
She came back to Yosemite and worked for the NPS. Until she got reliable aides, she relied alot on her friends to do nurse assisting. I remember changing her catheter and moving her from chair to bed, etc. It was the first time I'd been exposed to the smell of people who don't get bathed enough---not good old exertional body odor, but the smell of dead skin.
Werner, I always thought Tim Fitzgerald was the driver? They were on their way to Hawthorne, Nevada, I remember that much. I saw Tim several years ago in Yosemite; I think he was lobstering in Maine. Tim was a tortured soul before and after Donna's death.
Also, I don't remember that she suicided. She was off on a trip somewhere, Nepal??, being carted around on a trek. The version I heard was that she died in her sleep of organ failure. John Dill is who notified me, so John will know, if it makes any difference at this point.
Anne-Marie
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WBraun
climber
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Tim told me she committed suicide by drugs.
That's what he said as he was caring for her at the time.
He said she couldn't take it anymore living in a broken body.
Whether true or knott ask Tim, as he was the closest to her at those times.
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nita
climber
chico ca
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I worked with the cook from the Lodge, he was a mean drunk, but nice to me. His name was Jim something. He came back to work all banged up, black eyes,bruised all over. I always thought he was the one driving,but I could be wrong........... I also remember how kind and helpful Rizzi was to Donna, it inspired me to also help Donna.... It was all just so sad.
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chappy
Social climber
ventura
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Werner
I had always assumed it was Tim's fault. He did drink an awful lot...probably due to the fact he was a tortured soul. It warms my heart a bit to hear he was helping to care for Donna after the accident. Hi Anne Marie...
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 8, 2007 - 07:12pm PT
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I know nothing, but I had heard she died "unexpectedly," and word then had nothing to do with suicide, but now I see this is a possibility. I do remember she did some climbing, of course prior to her accident.
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Sport
Social climber
Houston, Texas
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Jul 14, 2009 - 12:36pm PT
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Hi - could the Tim Fitzgerald you all are referring to in this post be Tim Fitzgerald from Ventura, California, who was married to Julie Frazier and had a daughter named Taylor that moved to Round Rock, Texas after Julie divorced Tim in 2006? Is it the same Tim Fitzgerald who passed away in 2008 as a result of a fall?
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Fuzzywuzzy
climber
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Jul 14, 2009 - 02:29pm PT
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Hi all you old friends.
I remember what a great xc skier Donna was. It was Bev and Donna for sure who really rallied around on the skinny sticks BITD.
I remember pushing Donna around in the wheelchair by the Visitor center after the accident. She said, "Tom, over there, push me over there - I want to piss on that Park Service tire"!
Still held her humor - it was more difficult than most of us could ever imagine.
She loved Yosemite - to be active in it....
Tom Carter
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Blitzo
Social climber
Earth
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Jul 14, 2009 - 03:46pm PT
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I remember Donna. She hung around with Harding, but was usually hanging with Bev Johnson.
She had fantastic legs and always wore shorts, even on the coldest days,
I've met two Tim Fitzgeralds. One did the FA of "Tiny Tim" at Sunnyside Bench. The other was a tall burly dude with long dark hair, who would get hammered at the old, murky MR Bar and do push-ups on the floor. He was the one from the accident.
It seems that I recall a story of his mom jumping to her death from one of the waterfalls. I may be mixing him up with someone else.
Donna was a nice lady!
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Jul 14, 2009 - 04:00pm PT
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There are so many sad stories. Donna's story is one I never knew. Thanks to Pat and you other folks
bringing her memory back in this way. Somewhere there must be family who'd be touched too, to see this.
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guido
Trad climber
Santa Cruz/New Zealand/South Pacific
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Jul 14, 2009 - 05:57pm PT
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Donna was a soulful lady with lots of spunk and if feisty at times a blast to be around on adventures. I remember one fun trip on our annual pilgrimage out of TM, over the pass(Mono?) and down Bloody Canyon. It was with Jack Miller, a good friend of Donnas, myself and my ex, Trish. I never laughed so hard in my life. Hot day, cold swims in the lakes and a long hike back. No one would pick us up on 395. Probably because we were all laughing so hard and dancing along the highway. Everyday you wake up, can still walk and talk you have to be thankful.
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Nefarius
Big Wall climber
Fresno
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Jul 14, 2009 - 05:57pm PT
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I wasn't there, as I am too young for all of this...
From reading this thread, however, it sounds to me like there was some covering up of things. Possibly by friends. Thus the two conflicting stories about how the accident occurred and how Donna's death occurred.. Just a thought. Makes perfect sense, given the things it involves...
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nita
climber
chica from chico, I don't claim to be a daisy
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Jul 14, 2009 - 06:33pm PT
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My memory is the same as WBraun, a co-worker of mine was the driver.
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survival
Big Wall climber
A Token of My Extreme
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Jul 14, 2009 - 06:41pm PT
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So interesting, how a thread like this can put me back in a time and place...when things seemed so simple.....
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Jeanne Lee
climber
Clarkdale AZ
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Oct 19, 2014 - 10:35am PT
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I just love google. Thank all of you for your input. While I was in Yosemite Valley before the accident I knew Donna. A tragic turn of events but she certainly contributed to all disabled people. As a caretaker for a loved one right now I appreciate her spirit and dedication.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 19, 2014 - 11:54am PT
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Brief was my acquaintance with Donna.
Far too brief. She was a dynamite lady and was a journeyperson on the sewing machine. Some of the B.A.T. was made by her for Harding, as I heard it.
The winter of 1971 she and Cindy Merry decided they wanted another person along on a trans-Sierra Nevada cross country trip over Tioga, and so they collected Jeff Mathis, the Rev, who had just started in with old army surplus wood skis and clunky boots. The ski tip on one broke and he had a plastic tip, so it wasn't that awful.
the Rev said Donna was twice the skier he was at the time, although he improved a wee bit with more practice...like wintering at Ostrander and at TM two years in succession. That will do it, for sure.
I met Tim Fitzgerald, the one who did the FA of Tiny Tim. He was crashing in his station wagon and kept a dog, a very well-mannered dog. I don't know what's become of him, of course, since that was in 1970, my first season in C4. The other Tim has published a book and the only reason I know this is because he came into the restaurant where my sister works and they talked a bit.
That's all, folks.
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Fossil climber
Trad climber
Atlin, B. C.
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Oct 19, 2014 - 02:34pm PT
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Donna was a great gal - strong, assertive, a laugh a minute. She and Bev Johnson were good buddies. They, with Ned Gillette, were our early resident x-c instructors. Bev and Donna used to come giggling into the Mountain Shop, usually late, to meet their students with yogurt and pastry crumbs all over the front of their dark red uniform ski sweaters, looking totally unprofessional, and the students loved them both. They were warm and fun, took wonderful care of their group, and really got people to enjoy themselves.
In March of 72 Donna, Nancy Gillette, Mary Stauffer, Stacy Studebaker and Cindy Merry packed up the Snow Creek trail and skied over to LeeVining in really deep snow conditions. Wood skis, Bonna 2400s. Pack frames, knickers. Cindy says that Donna really took a sort of safety officer responsibility wherever there was avalanche potential.
Cindy remembers meeting Jeff, but can't recall if it was that trip or another.
Pete Thompson will remember Donna - she baby-sat son Josh and our kids too, and skied with them.
Donna, Ned, Bev - all gone - way too young. What great people.
WM
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Oct 19, 2014 - 04:02pm PT
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Thank you, sir!
And we mourn their passing at their relatively young ages.
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Park Rat
Social climber
CA, UT,CT,FL
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Oct 19, 2014 - 04:36pm PT
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I met Donna in the summer of 70 and 71 when I started working as a barmaid in the old mountain room. I remember her being very friendly, outgoing and energetic.
I also had the impression that she and Warren Harding were very close friends. This was after his bad to accident, they seem to be on the same crazy wavelength. It was a tough time for Harding and I think Donna helped him through that period of time.
When I heard about her accident and remember thinking how terribly sad that was, we were all so young and happy during those times.
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Gnome Ofthe Diabase
climber
Out Of Bed
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Oct 23, 2014 - 05:06am PT
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This was also most likely why Steve McKinney died. He was trying to be a safe driver and he climbed into the back of his pick up to sleep. The truck was hit by a sleepy driver of a big rig .
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Branscomb
Trad climber
Lander, WY
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Oct 23, 2014 - 07:44am PT
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My honey, Kristi Stouffer, daughter of Mary Stouffer who Wayne mentioned as having done the first women's winter ski traverse from the Valley to the East side, told me that Donna Pritchett taught her how to sew stuff sacks when Donna was watching the Merry's and Stouffer's kids in Yosemite. She said that Donna told her that if she sewed little bows on the sacks, that the boys wouldn't steal them from her.
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| Messages 1 - 28 of total 28 in this topic |
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