Althea Cumming

Althea Maxine (Lundberg) Cumming passed away on Dec. 20, 2020 at her home in Sun Lakes, Ariz. at the age of 96.

Althea was born March 26, 1924, to Roy Edward and Alice Pearl (Lounsberry) Lundberg on their farm north of Haxtun in Sedgwick County. She attended Fairfield School nearby from first through 10th grade. Althea then finished the last two years of high school in Haxtun, with the Class of 1942. The family was a member of the local Swedish Covenant Church, where her father was on the board and Althea sang and played keyboards in the choir.

Following high school, Althea was a rural schoolteacher at Paoli and then at a school south of Julesburg. After the war in 1946, she met Kenneth Eugene Cumming in Julesburg. That next year they were married on Dec. 22, 1947, at the Chapel of Rocks and Roses, Medford, Ore. To this union, three children were born. They then made their home in Julesburg and Althea enjoyed being a housewife and raising their young children there.

In 1960, they moved to a suburb in southeast Denver, where they built their home at 9141 E. Tufts Circle in Greenwood Village, across the street from the Cherry Creek Schools, because they wanted their children to be able to walk to school. Althea oversaw the lives of her children. She arranged piano and organ lessons for all three children, helped with homework, took them to church, planned annual family vacations, encouraged sports, scouts and various school-related activities and even helped with the Denver Post paper route in a snowstorm, more than once. She was a good bowler and an avid bridge player. She also found purpose in her work as a Gray Lady volunteer in the ICU at Swedish Hospital in Englewood. Althea was an excellent cook and a gracious host to visiting friends and relatives. Through the years, she would often stay up after everyone had gone to bed to play the piano and organ, usually by request. Each family late-night concert was memorable. Music gave joy to our mother and you could hear it in her song.

In the late 1970s, with the children grown, Kenneth and Althea moved back to northeastern Colorado, where they lived in Sterling. Soon after that, they also built a second home in Sun Lakes, where they were snowbirds and then retired there in 1985. Althea then went back to her volunteer work as a Gray Lady at the Chandler Regional Medical Center.

She was also an active bridge player in the Thursday Women's Bridge Club in Sun Lakes for over 20 years. Many close friends they had known throughout their life also retired to Sun Lakes, making the golden years that much more golden. They would often gather socially once a week for what they called Pop Corn Club. Kenneth and Althea still enjoyed traveling, usually with old friends, to Navy Reunions in Charleston, S.C., Alaska and Hawaii and occasional weekend trips to get away to Aliso Viejo, Calif., Laughlin, Nev., and Sedona, Ariz.

She is survived by her children Janet and husband Alan Sachter, Ogden, Utah, James, Sun Lakes, and JoAnn, Chandler, Ariz.; grandchildren Tina and husband Mike Reilly Sachter, Vancouver, B.C., Corbett Sachter, Seattle, Wash., and Megan and Daryl Robinson, Gilbert, Ariz.; great-grandchildren Jackson and Samson Reilly Sachter, Vancouver, BC.

Althea is preceded by her parents; sisters Norma Michael, Mary Alice Lambert and Dorothy Lundberg; brothers Maynard, Lyle and Melvin; and her husband Kenneth Eugene Cumming.

Memorials can be made in Althea's name to the Hospice of the Valley, 2020 E. Woodside Court, Gilbert, AZ 85297.

Funeral services and interment were held on Dec. 28 at the Valley of the Sun Cemetery at the graveside with Reverend Marvin Arnpriester of the Sun Lakes United Methodist Church officiating.