Vivian “Becky” Dunklee, age 89, of Martin, died Thursday, April 4.
Becky was born Jan. 13, 1930, to Mid and Laura (Robar) LaFountain.
Growing up on the muck farms in Orangeville, she and her parents only spoke French and spent much of their time working the farms. Becky attended school through the eighth grade in Orangeville. At the age of 17, she was caught stealing ice off a wagon by a local young man who offered to keep her secret if she agreed to go out with him. In July of 1947, Becky married that young man and became Mrs. Ken Dunklee.
Ken died. in 1968 and she later married Norman Phillips. Becky continued to work in greenhouses and loved to garden and her cooking skills were well known and appreciated.
After Norm died in 1997, she wed her brother-in-law, Franic Dunklee in May 2005 after his wife passed away. The couple enjoyed one another’s good company for the next twelve years until Francis died in 2017.
Visitation will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 9 at the McCowen & Secord Funeral Home Marshall & Gren Chapel; 120 S. Woodhams St. Plainwell. The funeral will be at 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 10, at the funeral home.
Becky’s family includes her children: Steve Dunklee: Jerry (Rebecca) Dunklee and Tim (Julie) Dunklee; 12 grandchildren; 8 great-grandchildren; her brother Ed (Eve) LaFountain as well as several nieces and nephews.
Becky was preceded in death by her parents; her husbands: Kenneth C. Dunklee (1968), Norman A. Phillips (1997) and Francis Dunklee (2017); her children: Kenneth Carl Dunklee Jr., Warren E. Dunklee and Stanley R. Dunklee; two grandchildren Kenneth C. Dunklee and Daniel L. Dunklee; her siblings: Merle LaFountain, Norman LaFountain, Lee LaFountain, Leo LaFountain, Owen LaFountain, Raymond LaFountain, Joe LaFountain, Hazel Ginabaugh, Ruth Stafford, Evelyn Coriell, Iveda Leroy, Dorothy Bradshaw and JoannParkerson.
Memorial donations can be made to the family or the Cancer Research Institute.
