Audrey Annette Holtey

Holtey, Audrey A., age 93 of Coon Rapids, passed away July 23, 2021. Audrey was born during the Great Depression to Opal Myrtle Smith Drake and Harry Otto Drake on April 29th, 1928 in Huntersville, MN, and she was the oldest of three children. She lived and worked on the farm her family built north of Menahga, MN. She enjoyed telling the story of helping her father build the barn. In her spare time while growing up she enjoyed reading, writing, and reciting poetry by heart. She recited poems to her children and continued to even at age 93. She loved to sing hymns and Steven Foster songs with her sister while their mother played the pipe organ in the farm house. She had a love of nature and spent time at the little river down the hill behind the house; swimming in the summer and shoveling snow off of the ice to skate on in the winter. Audrey was a responsible and intelligent person, a hard worker on the farm and in school. She was valedictorian of her high school graduating class and as soon as she graduated she took the bus to Minneapolis to complete a degree at the College of Commerce Business School. She was proud to remind us that she was the legal secretary to the Assistant Attorney General for the state of Minnesota. She rode the street car to work every day. Even at the age of 93 she amazed us with her ability to still write in shorthand. Audrey met Richard (Dick) Henry Holtey in Minneapolis after he completed his naval service in WWII. They married in Minneapolis in 1949 and remained together until Dick's death in 2008 - 59 years of marriage together. Sadly, as a young mother at age 25, she was stricken with Polio in 1953. She spent time at Sister Kenney's (now Courage Kenney) but remained with a paralyzed right arm. She learned to do everything with one arm and still had two more children after polio. Audrey lived in her Coon Rapids home for 62 years and raised her four children, and as she liked to say; "and half the neighborhood". She had the softest spot in her heart for children, and loved everybody. She was very active doing all of her own house and yard work with one arm, and she walked two miles a day until the age of 88. She loved learning and reading, was broad minded and inclusive and saw the good in all people. She was also active in volunteering for the March of Dimes after she survived polio and she volunteered Epiphany Catholic Church. Preceded in death by husband, Richard, and son, Craig. Survived by daughters, Sharon Newton and Judy Dunn; son, Mark (Julie); grand-children, Anji (Tony), Andy (Dawn), Jack (Jean), Travis (Brandyn), Eric, Mikey, Haley and Tom; and great-grandchildren in addition to other relatives & friends. Mass of Christian Burial at The Church of the Epiphany, 11001 Hanson Blvd NW, Coon Rapids. Visitation at the Washburn McReavy Coon Rapids Chapel 763-767-1000 www.Washburn-McReavy.com

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Audrey Annette Holtey

April 29, 1928 - July 23, 2021

Tributes

Audrey Annette Holtey

April 29, 1928 - July 23, 2021

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