Deanne Dorn

Dee was born on March 28, 1942, and raised on a farm near Webster City, Iowa. She graduated from Lincoln High School, Class of 1961. She attended Drake University and joined the Chi Omega Sorority, graduating with a BS in Elementary Education. At Drake she met Bill Don Carlos. They were married and settled in Greenfield, Iowa, where Bill practiced law and Deanne taught school, primarily fourth grade and remedial reading. They raised their two boys, William and Michael, on a farm near town. Although baptized Catholic, she became a member of the Greenfield United Methodist Church. In Greenfield both Bill and Deanne obtained private pilot licenses. In the late 1970s they relocated to Scottsdale, Arizona. Her parents wintered in nearby Mesa, Arizona. Dee started her own business teaching private pilot ground schools and administering FAA written exams in Phoenix, Flagstaff, and California. After two years in Scottsdale, her marriage to Bill Don Carlos ended. Dee obtained a real estate license and was married to Michael Dorn, who developed residential properties in Scottsdale, Flagstaff, Arizona, and Minneapolis. She started an interior design business; she beautified many spaces with her ideas. Mike and Dee were married for nine years. Afterward, they remained friends and business partners. Dee continued to use her teaching talents by training commercial and residential real estate agents and other related professionals to use Metroscan software for a subsidiary of TransAmerica Corp. After Scottsdale, Dee resided in San Diego, then in Yuma, Arizona, and finally in Tucson, near her eldest son William.

She is predeceased by both of her parents, Mildred and Edward Zeihan. Her first husband Bill Don Carlos perished along with his wife, Pauline, in a small plane crash in Phoenix, in October, 2000.

Dee is survived by her brother Jerry Zeihan, a retired schoolteacher, his wife Agnes, of Marshalltown, Iowa, and their children: Elizabeth, Peter, and Adam. She is also survived by both sons Michael & Kelly Don Carlos, their children, Kinsey and Will, who live near Seattle, Washington; also, William & Dr. Stephanie Don Carlos, of Tucson, Arizona, their son Dalton Hirst, wife Diane and their baby, Hayden James, who visited and brightened Dee’s hospice room, bringing lots of joy and laughter, and transformed the evening before she died into an impromptu party.

Dee was quite an unforgettable personality. She enjoyed people, as a fabulous hostess, as a great cook, and as a woman who loved beautiful clothes and parties. She could turn almost any situation into a festive celebration. In March, 2024, after receiving a Stage Four Lung Cancer diagnosis, she fought it with her monolithic spirit. Special thanks goes to her daughter-in-law, Stephanie, who accompanied her as care giver for nearly eight months, spending most weekdays helping Dee endure countless arduous medical appointments; exhausting chemo and radiation treatments. And along that difficult path, they also went shopping, savored good food, and laughed a lot. Dee even loved shopping for wigs. That was all part of her signature expression in defiance of cancer, part of the fabric of her compelling charisma, her steely Germanic will to live.

Dee donated her body to science. Her cremains will be interred in Iowa at a later date. Michael and William are grateful for the wonderful hospice care she received at Tucson Medical Center. Dee loved her boys and family very much.

Please remember her with a little prayer or even by just a smile, especially when you recall one of her fabulous meals. Dee’s ringing laugh echoes in our memories still. She had a wonderful sense of humor. Although she did not expressly wish to have a formal public funeral service, she loved the Robert Service poem, The Cremation of Sam McGee, and asked to have it read in her memory.