Obituary of Adair McDonald Dahman

Adair McDonald Dahman, age 83, died December 30, 2021, in hospice care at Bayview Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Red Wing following a stroke. Born in 1938 in Hibbing to Rev. Lorne and Marcella McDonald, Adair loved life on the Iron Range in Chisholm as well as her time in St. Paul and Lake City. She graduated from Lincoln High School, married her high school sweetheart, Dick Dahman, and raised five children in Lake City before moving to Red Wing.

Adair was a homemaker and an active community, school, and church volunteer. She especially liked writing Sunday School Christmas programs, telling the stories of Jesus through drama and song. For decades, she wrote weekly to her grandchildren in The Grandma Note, always ending “God is near. All is well.”

Following Dick’s death, Adair married Horst Radtke and felt blessed to love again in her senior years. She enjoyed playing piano at chapel services, in nursing homes, and for fellow residents at the Red Wing Downtown Plaza where she had been scheduled to play “The Quiet Songs of Christmas” the day following her stroke.

Preceded in death by her parents; step-brothers Florin, Fay, and Charles “Chuck” McDonald; brother John McDonald; husband of 48 years, Richard “Dick” Dahman; daughter Adair Palmatier; and son William Dahman.

Survived by her husband of 14 years, Horst Radtke; children Diane (Tom) Erickson, Kerry (Bill) Laqua, and Rich Dahman; son-in-law Christopher Palmatier; daughters-in-law Lisa Meyer and Kirsten Dahman; grandchildren Evan, Lauren (Christian), Mitchel, Hannah (Reid), Nolan, Kailey, Chris (Brooke), Nick, Samuel, Emma, Will, Julia; great-grandchildren Nora, Fredrik, Colton; brother Lorne (Avis Swan) McDonald; sister Marcy Hostager; nieces, nephews, and friends.

Memorials to Faith in Action, 320 West Avenue, Suite B, Red Wing, MN, 55066. Celebration of life and interment at a later date, Oakwood Cemetery, Red Wing.