Doris Jewell Haataja, 94, died in her sleep on April 11, 2025.
Doris was born August 25, 1930, in Minneapolis MN, the only child of Harry and Pauline (nee Koch). The doctor who delivered her looked like Santa Claus, and she visited him as a child for issues including a gashed knee that he clamped together rather than using stitches.
Her middle name was derived from her Grandma Miner’s maiden name Joul. Doris disliked the name, so dropped the extra L when she was old enough to write and started using Miner as her middle name when she married.
Her dad built her many things at the house they rented when she was young including a wood-framed swing set, a sandbox and a little red table with three chairs for her and her two friends who lived a few houses away. He also loved to travel, so Doris got to attend the Chicago World’s Fair, though she remembers very little about it.
When she was little her parents had her take dance lessons. Her parents thought her majorette costume for the recital was darling, but she dreaded dance class because she wasn’t very good, so they allowed her to quit.
In kindergarten she said that they all majored in the sandbox, building blocks and how to cooperate with a teacher and other children. She had a lisp, so she was given lessons in elocution, which she assumed was what speech therapy was called back then. She was told to memorize a poem, so Doris surprised them all by memorizing “The Night Before Christmas,” even though she couldn’t read yet.
The summer after kindergarten her parents bought the house near Lake Street in Minneapolis that they both lived in until they died. The price of the house was $3,000 and they obtained a ten-year mortgage. The parts of the house she loved the best were her playroom in the attic, and the swing on the porch. It was great on hot evenings to swing back and forth; back and forth. Most summers she slept on a roll-away on the porch. She didn’t like the basement with its big coal furnace. Everything got dirty from the coal until it was converted into gas, and they could use the coal bin for storage.
One thing about the neighborhood that she didn’t like was the man who would come down the alley with his wagon calling, “rags, rags, rags.” Grandma used to kiddingly scare her by saying that if she wasn’t good, she’d sell her to him. The visitor she did love was the ice man who would come by a few times each week in the summer. She and her friends would hang around hoping to get a sliver of ice.
Her parents had a few reference books at home, and she devoured them. She liked the almanac, dictionary, and world atlas, and credits the atlas for her love of maps.
Other entertainment at home consisted of radio. Programs were fun and everybody had favorites just like on television. There were a bunch of 15-minute kiddie shows after school. A big favorite of hers was the serial “Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy” brought to us by Wheaties, breakfast of Champions. She also used to like scary radio programs, especially when she was old enough to stay home alone. She’d turn off the lights and try to get scared. She listened to music on the radio when she was old enough to appreciate popular music. It was the big band era and the music was good.
Walking was her main mode of transportation when she was young, but she and her friends also had adjustable metal roller skates which they clamped to their shoes. They tightened and loosened them with a special skate key. She also went ice skating on ponds in the winter.
Christmas Eve was always spent in a children’s program at church. Every child had a part to recite, even if it was very short. Christmas morning was always exciting because Santa Claus not only brought presents, but he even put up the Christmas tree at their house. Her mother had to convince them to take it down in February; Doris wanted it to stay up all year.
Many of the parks had 4th of July activities for children that she looked forward to. They saved visiting Powderhorn for the evening because it had the big fireworks display. The last time she was there was with Pop, Sharon and Emily around 1980. She was anxious to re-live a special memory of younger years, but it was intensely hot and crowded and she left disappointed.
She also loved going to the exhibits at the Minnesota State Fair each fall. She and her parents would go for the whole day and bring a picnic lunch since the food was so expensive. When she was old enough to go to the Fair with friends, she’d often go three or four times a year with almost anybody she could find. As a teenager, she and friends also took the streetcar out to Excelsior Park many times.
During summer vacations she spent lots of time reading and walking along the Mississippi River. At home she and her friends designed fancy clothes for their paper dolls.
High School was at South High School which she traveled to on the streetcar. Doris said she didn’t work very hard, so she guessed she took easy classes. We’re certain she was just smart. She also wasn’t into any extracurricular activities, but she attended lots of sports events.
Her elementary school had mid-year entrances and mid-year graduations, so students passed to a new class every half year. Doris and five other girls skipped the first half of third grade, though she didn’t know why. Because of that she graduated from high school a semester early in January 1948.
One of the boys had a party in his basement where they had a good time dancing and playing games. At around 3 am the remining kids went for a ride to a hall where some other classmates had a big party. Finally, they had breakfast at a little diner on 27th and Lake Street called the Talk Town Diner before heading home.
Monday morning she knew it was time to get down to business. She answered ads from the Sunday newspaper and was hired at Midland National Bank downtown almost immediately. She considered this her first “real job”, but while in school her jobs were babysitting and working at the A & W root beer stand down by the Lake Street bridge during the summer. They were paid 40¢ an hour and tips averaged 30¢ an hour. She continued to work there for a few years after graduation because it was a fun meeting place for friends. There were always boys coming around who they knew and liked and sometimes went out with.
By the time she left the bank after three years, she was making $162.50 a month, or about 94¢ an hour. She didn’t want to be transferred to another department, and found a job instead at the Star and Tribune Co. The most she made there was $2.25 an hour, but she considered it a fortune. She would refer to those years as her “single and rich” years.
She used her money to do a lot of traveling. Among other places, she travelled to California with friends a few times and out east to NYC. She even convinced her parents to take trips to California and out east. Her most exciting trip was a 3-week trip to Europe in 1956. In 1954 she went to the Black Hills for a few days with two friends from work and vowed to return. She knew she wanted to return there again. Her last trip as a single lady was again to California where her fiancé Esa convinced her to visit his sister in San Mateo. She was a bit apprehensive at contacting someone she’d never met, but she loved spending time with Sophie.
Doris’ dad listened to sports events on the radio while she grew up, so she could hardly avoid becoming interested in the Minneapolis Millers baseball team. They played almost daily during the summer and her dad had the radio on in the house, down the basement, or in the yard with an extension cord from the garage. So, when she grew up, she started going around with a couple of girl friends who liked baseball. They became real Miller fans, purchasing season tickets. Then they went to Chicago, Milwaukee, and New York City to see big league games and had some interesting adventures.
Doris and her friends were at a ballgame on a Saturday in Milwaukee when the Giants were playing once in the 1950s, probably in July. They would go to the motel at breakfast where the players stayed and managed to get free tickets to the games. On one trip manager Leo Durocher didn’t know anyone in Milwaukee, so he invited Doris and her friends up to his room for dinner. He asked if they were coming to the game on Sunday, and they said they were out of money and needed to get to work on Monday and wouldn’t be able to take the train. Leo gave $50 to them so they could stay and fly home.
Next time they were in Chicago they repaid him after the game but were embarrassed when they slipped him the money.
It was at the Star Tribune that she met her husband, Esa. When she finally settled down in 1958, she really settled down. During the next 7 years, they had their four children Rachel (who they had named Laurel), Steven, Sharon and Emily.
In 1967 she convinced Esa that the ultimate destination of a trip doesn’t have to be the home of a relative. He wasn’t excited about the thought of the Black Hills, but she wanted to go back and see the most was a beautiful little resort in Spearfish Canyon, Rimrock Lodge on a hillside of the canyon. In 1967 the canyon road was closed during the daytime because of reconstruction after Spearfish Creek flooded a year or two before, so of course Rimrock was closed. But they all enjoyed the Black Hills and went back for a 2-week vacation in 1969, staying at Rimrock Lodge. Before they left, they discovered that it was for sale. So, they bought it and moved out there early summer 1970.
Running a summer resort was a real adventure. After 7 summers, they were all getting tired, and some friends offered to buy it. The kids were growing up and didn’t like being tied down every summer either.
She enjoyed the back roads in the hills area. They had a 1971 Suburban for many years and she, with the kids or anybody else she could find, drove around some very interesting and remote roads where we found old mines and ghost towns. We were almost lost a few times and twice she got into a situation in which she had to find a man to get them out. But it was always so much fun.
After moving to the Black Hills, most trips were going back to Minnesota to visit relatives. Her father, and then her mother died and eventually the house they bought when she was a little girl was sold.
Her children grew up and moved away and had their own children. She and Esa visited their them and still took trips the Twin Cities and a few Haataja family reunions at the farm Esa grew up on in Northern Minnesota into the 90s. Getting to see so many classmates at her 50th class reunion was an extra special event.
When her children visited, she loved being taken out on the backroads with them and getting food from Pizza Hut like she did when they were young. Getting to spend time with her grandchildren made those visits even more special.
Doris was great at remembering trivia, especially if it was from when she was younger, and watched jeopardy every evening. She volunteered at the food pantry in Spearfish and loved watching baseball and football. Of course, the Twins and Vikings were her teams. Later her son in law Ron got her into NASCAR, and she would keep detailed notes about the races.
She kept detailed notes about everything. Old calendars had high and low temperatures for each day written on them. We even found notes about the fabric she bought one year in the 60s and what clothing she was going to sew for herself and each child. Sewing was a way she saved money when she was a teenager until around the time we moved to the Black Hills. Later in life she sewed plastic canvas boxes and crocheted blankets.
Esa stopped working in the late 80s, later developed dementia and died in 2007. Unfortunately, she also outlived her son Steve and daughter Rachel. It was very hard on her outliving some of her children.
Doris stayed in the house they purchased in Spearfish in 1973 until she had a stroke in 2017 and moved into assisted living in Rapid City near her daughter Sharon who had returned to the Hills in the 90’s. She did make a few good friends in assisted living, but all the Koch and Miner relatives she knew were long gone, as well as her friends from when she was young. By the time she broke her ankle a few months ago, she was more than ready to move on and get to see them all again.
Doris is survived by her daughters, Sharon (Ronald) Taylor and Emily (Eric) McAllister; grandchildren, Nicole Taylor, Zachary Taylor, Cassandra (Daniel) Trager, Benjamin (Hannah) McAllister and Christopher David; and great-grandchildren, Ari and Mia Trager.
She was proceeded in death by her husband, Esaja; son, Steven, and daughter Rachel David.
Visitation will be held from 10AM to 11AM on Saturday, April 19, 2025, at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Spearfish, SD. The funeral service will commence at 11AM, with Rev. Dr. Thomas Brown officiating. Burial will follow at Rose Hill Cemetery. Family and friends will gather at St. Paul Lutheran Church after the burial for fellowship.
