Donna was born Aug. 31, 1937, in Morgantown, Ky., to Fred Ragland and Leona Pearl Wyley, the third of three girls. She came with her mother and sisters to Colorado in 1939, first to Monte Vista and then to Wagon Wheel Gap, where her mother’s extended family was building Cottonwood Cove resort. She attended Creede schools and then moved with her mother to Truth or Consequences, N.M., in 1952, where she attended Hot Springs High School.
She married her high school sweetheart Worley Brock in 1955. Their only child, Richard Brock, was born in Hawaii in 1961. Donna returned to the mainland in the early 1970s. She married Charles “Chick” Graham in 1977. For a time, she ran a dress shop in Monte Vista with her sister Barbara and their mother, the “Julie Sue” on Adams Street, before she and Chick moved to Truth or Consequences and settled in.
Donna worked as the creative director of Adobe Moon Arts, a gift and ceramic studio in Truth or Consequences. Later she was active in the VFW and was also a long-time volunteer at the Hamilton Military Museum. Her passion was creating art, and she created many beautiful and unique works in tile, ceramics, pottery, fabric, and painting.
Donna was preceded in death by her sisters Ordean Landers and Barbara Magness, by both of her husbands, by her son Richard Brock, and by her grandson Mason Brock.
She is survived by her grandson Mitchell Brock, nephews Creede, Orin, and Wyley Hargraves, niece Melanie Colding, and cousins Gea and Ken Wyley, among others.
Her last years were difficult as her dementia deepened but her life was made much easier by the loving help of her nephews, her niece-in-law Therese Hargraves, and her devoted stepdaughter Carolyn Bryant.
She died in Del Norte at River Valley Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center on March 18, 2025. There will be no public service, according to her wishes, and she has donated her body to science.
