Donna Richards

Santa Rosa-born artist and retired schoolteacher Donna Richards created quite the scene at Sonoma County’s central landfill two years ago when she handed out a pickup load of her early paintings to anyone who wanted one, or two.

“It was something I’ll never forget,” said her husband, Cliff Richards. “We didn’t have to unload the truck - it was done for us!”

His wife, a prolific painter who taught for decades at Dunbar School in Glen Ellen, died June 28 at their home in Petaluma. She was 80.

Richards grew up in Windsor with rancher parents Don and Irene DuVander, she studied at Healdsburg High, then Santa Rosa Junior College, and she earned a teaching credential at the college that became San Jose State University.

She began her career in education on the lower Russian River, moving on to a school in Walnut Creek and then the tiny Humboldt County town of Dinsmore. For a time, she and her first husband owned the mill town and its inn, restaurant and a few other amenities.

She was a divorced mother of three sons when she returned to Sonoma County in 1971. A short time later she joined the faculty of Dunbar School.

In 1974, she met Cliff Richards, a divorced father of two sons. When they married two years later, their five sons were aged 5 to 13.

Cliff Richards, a career steamfitter, said the blending of the two families with enough boys to field a basketball team made for a most dynamic and interesting time in the lives of all involved.

Donna Richards took up painting about 40 years ago. It thrilled her when her husband built her a studio at their home in Petaluma.

Her retirement from teaching in 1997 allowed her more time to paint. Cliff Richards said his wife would create several paintings in one style and then begin experimenting in another.

She loved classic cars, so some of her paintings featured fine examples of Detroit steel. A number of her pieces did well in judging at the Sonoma County Fair.

It was the spring of 2012 when Donna Richards found it was time to clear her studio of some of her early paintings. She said at the time, “These have to go; they’re really bad.”

She and her husband filled the bed of their pickup with about 40 of the long-stored paintings and drove them to Recycle Town at the Central Landfill on Mecham Road. All manner of reusable items and materials are dropped off and resold there.

The couple alerted the treasure-seekers present that they were giving away original paintings for free. Soon, a happy crowd picked through the canvases.

“People were going through these paintings and reminiscing about the cars,” Donna Richards said a while after the last painting was claimed.

The retired teacher suffered two harsh blows this past January. Her eldest son, Kristian Hartley, for whom she’d cared for through most of the previous 18 months, died of cancer. And she herself received a cancer diagnosis.

Her husband of nearly 40 years said she savored her life and her family right to the end.

A brother, Ted DuVander of Windsor, said, “She was always a very kind person. She was a real listening post. She didn’t act like a strong person, but I think she was, in a very subtle way. Just a very good person.”

She was also preceded in death by son Mark Richards. In addition to her husband in Petaluma, she is survived by her sons Mike Richards of Petaluma, Montana Hartley of Windsor and Joe Hartley, whose hometown is unknown; sisters Anandi DuVander, Marilyn DuVander and Margi Goff, all of Windsor; brother Jim DuVander of Windsor, five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

A celebration of her life will be held at 1 p.m. Aug. 12 at the Mary Agatha Furth Center in Windsor. A potluck reception will follow.

Richards’ family suggests memorial contributions to Sutter Hospice, suttercareathome.org.