Bobbie Domenick, 87, passed away peacefully at home in the early hours of Nov. 30.
Born Barbara Jo Rappe on April 5, 1928, to Carl Adrian and Lyda Jane Rappe in Seminole, Oklahoma, Bobbie was a farm girl with a head for numbers and a heart full of love for family, friends and animals.
She was raised with her older sister Dorotha in Howard, Colorado, and could most often be found on the back of her favorite horse, Flicka. Their younger brother Carl was a late and welcome addition to the family when the girls hit their 20s.
At a grange hall dance in Howard, Sylvester Domenick caught Bobbie’s eye, and once he agreed to shave his mustache, the two were married in June of 1948. The young couple moved to Denver, then Pueblo, Colorado, where they had their son, Warren Ray, in 1953. At the urging of her cousins Glen and Hilda Appleby and uncle F.M. Wright, Bobbie and Syl moved to Moab during the uranium boom, where Bobbie worked with her cousins at their diner, the Toot ‘N Tell ‘Em, and daughter Rebecca Sue was nearly delivered at the restaurant grill in 1954.
Syl went to work at Atlas Minerals and Bobbie got a job in the Grand County Clerk’s office, where she was appointed as clerk/ auditor in 1967 and then elected for four consecutive terms. The couple built their dream home, and more importantly their dream landscape, on Mill Creek Drive, where they took great joy hosting parties for family and friends and even a few weddings where Bobbie officiated as clerk. They were well-known for their love of entertaining, delicious food and great pride in their immaculate yard and gardens. Bobbie loved the area, which she referred to as “God’s country,” and was even a guide for the Pritchett Canyon trail in the first Moab Jeep Safari.
After Syl died in 1988, Bobbie fulfilled their retirement dream of moving out to their land in Spanish Valley, returning to her sharecropping roots. She also went camping every chance she got with her best friend Gale Richardson, hiking all day and flipping flint, which she enjoyed into her 80s.
Honest and hard-working, Bobbie was kind, stubborn and a gifted storyteller. She had a lifelong passion for gardening, family gatherings and being organized. She loved the Broncos, margaritas, playing cards, local and national politics, westerns – especially John Wayne movies – and watching the sun set on the rocks from her home on Easy Street.
Bobbie is survived by son Warren Domenick, daughter Becky Peterson, brother Carl (Debbie) Rappe, seven grandchildren, three great-grandchildren and a large beloved extended family. She was preceded in death by her parents, husband Syl and sister Dorotha Sakrison.
Cremation has taken place and a celebration of her life will be held in the spring. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to the kind folks at Grand County Hospice.
