Colette Ann Bauer

Colette Ann (Inman) Bauer of Los Molinos died Saturday, November 30, 2024, at the age of 83 after an active and productive life which was ended by a long struggle with cancer. Colette was born Friday, June 13, 1941 in Oroville, CA to William and Susan Inman. She was the eldest of four children. She was the product of the Oroville elementary school system, the Red Bluff High School system and California State University at Chico where she majored in elementary education. Colette was a farm girl and worked all of her life, which included a primary school teaching career during which taught the children how to read. She was a master at teaching reading. Colette was passionate about life – first, passionate about education as a teacher, but equally passionate about family, friends, faith, flowers (both growing and arranging), food (growing and preparing and serving and preserving), sewing, quilting, and always about investigating what might be at the end of the next shady backroad. After teaching in Paskenta for one year, Colette moved into Corning for a few years and then moved to Madras, Oregon for ten years where she taught primary grades at Metolias Elementary School and mastered the skill of teaching reading. While in Oregon, Colette applied her very significant sewing skills to making all of the clothes her two daughters wore for several years. As a child, she had been a member of the local 4-H club and her mother was an excellent seamstress in her own right, so there was plenty of instruction in the domestic skills in Colette’s life. In turn, as an adult, Colette served many years as a 4-H club leader, passing on her skills to future generations. Although she didn’t know it at the time, Colette attended the Junior Prom at Los Molinos High School with the eventual love of her life, Chris Bauer. They attended different high schools but 4-H brought them together, and as new seniors in their respective schools, they teamed up to serve as 4-H summer camp directors at the relatively new Camp Tehama just off of Mill Creek in the mountains. But, their lives went different directions – Colette knew she was going to be a teacher, Chris didn’t know what he wanted to be, but he wound up teaching high school in Red Bluff and, it was just a matter of time before their lives intersected again, thanks to a mutual friend – Burt Bundy. Colette and her two daughters were a package deal when she married Chris in 1978 and moved to Los Molinos. He asked her if she wanted a ring to seal the deal and she said, “No, I want you to build me a house.” They spent the first two years of their marriage building a house from the ground up. They were married for 461/2 years during which Colette was key to making the house a home. Upon moving back to California, Colette landed a job teaching primary school at Reeds Creek Elementary School for two years, and then transferred her skills to Vina Elementary School where she finished off her very illustrious 43 year teaching career, retiring in 2007, after also serving as reading specialist for the Los Molinos Elementary School. She came to realize that perhaps her greatest gift to her community was in equipping all of the hundreds of children who went through her reading program with the fundamental survival skill of reading. Carolyn Steffan, who was the 3 rd – 4 th grade teaching principal of the school said that, in addition to Colette’s deep knowledge of the “how” of teaching reading, Colette never gave up on a single student, and so she was instrumental in establishing the Vina reputation for providing excellence in education. As a natural spin-off of her career in teaching, Colette became a member of the local chapter of the Delta Kappa Gamma Society for women educators. This organization champions causes important to education and important to women in education, working on legislative proposals at the state level, and at the regional and local level by raising money for scholarships for deserving high school and college students who are interested in becoming teachers. Colette served as President from 1994-1995, and she occasionally served on the scholarship committee. Colette always had flowers and plants in and around the house. She joined the Red Bluff Garden Club to learn more about flower propagation and floral design. For many years, she blessed the congregations of two churches with weekly floral creations – created mostly with flowers from her own garden. She used to joke that she and God were a team. Colette’s passion about all aspects of food revolved less around eating it and more about preparing and preserving it so it could be packaged up as gifts – Christmas baskets with jams and jellies, cakes and cookies – she called them “good health foods,” birthday baskets and gifts, and so forth. She also provided much of the preserved and baked goods sold at the annual Tehama County Museum Jubilee (now Rendezvous). Colette’s passion for shady country roads began as a child with her father’s inquisitive nature which usually landed him, and sometimes his family in the middle of someone’s backyard or at the edge of someone’s chicken coop with nowhere convenient to turn around. She used to say that she has met some of the most interesting people at the end of those country roads. She even got a license plate holder for her car that read “Back roads and chicken yards are byooootiful.” Colette was an avid reader, especially of murder mysteries. She practiced what she preached. (Her husband attributes his habit of sleeping lightly in part to her choices in reading material.) Colette is survived by her husband Chris, their two daughters, Stacy Northup (Rick) and Darcy Bailey; by her sister Coralee Lindauer (Michael), her brother Richard Inman (Sue) of Central Point, Oregon; her four grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. Colette will be buried in the Tehama Cemetery in a private, family service. Those who knew Colette are invited to the Cone Community United Methodist Church just south of Dairyville on Hiway 99E at 3 PM on December 22, 2024, to join in a celebration of her life. A dessert social will follow the service in the social hall. In alignment with her passions, in lieu of flowers, please be generous to the needs of your local school’s scholarship program, or take a friend to lunch, (or better yet, fix a nice dinner and share it with a friend), or donate to your (or her) church youth program, or to the Red Bluff Garden Club Scholarship program, or to the Delta Kappa Gamma scholarship program. Colette and family are thankful.

Colette Ann Bauer

June 13, 1941 - November 30, 2024

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Colette Ann Bauer

June 13, 1941 - November 30, 2024

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