Lucinda Dell

Lucinda “Cindi” Lee Dell (McCormack) age 63, of Danbury, WI., passed away after a valiant battle with cancer at home with her family by her side on January 20, 2024.

Cindi was born on February 8, 1960 to Thomas and Darlene McCormack in New Brighton, MN. She grew up with 5 brothers: Mike, Scott, Todd, Pat and Tom. She was the apple of her father’s eye.

Cindi learned to love to fish from her grandpa Clem and grandma Vi Borman.

She was captain of her basketball team in grade school. At age 10 she once rode her bike from New Brighton to Plymouth on the freeway without permission just to visit her grandma and grandpa Borman (which hinted at the determination she would use throughout her life to accomplish many things). Her childhood was cut short when her father was murdered, which split up the family for a while. They relocated to Washington State and lived in the San Juan Islands. In her youth, she lived in a group home for a year. Cindi once rode on a cattle roundup in Wyoming and hitch hiked for an adventure to San Francisco alone. With the help of her Aunt Monica, she moved back to Minnesota, enrolling in a Technical College for Auto Mechanics.

As a young woman, Cindi dated a billionaire’s son and a lawyer before meeting and falling in love with her husband of 43 years. Driven by her quest for adventures and warmer climate they relocated to Santa Barbera where they married and started a family. Cindi worked for a Case Detective Agency at the Santa Barbera Airport as security where she met and visited with many famous people such as Paul Newman, ZZ Top, Lucille Ball, John Travolta (or John Revolting as she called him because he was so full of himself) and boxer Leon Spinks, among others. During this time Cindi and Rick became good friends with the Santa Barbera Chief of Police and Airport Head of Security.

In 1982, they were urged to move back to Minnesota where they settled in a little log cabin in Minnetonka. Although she never graduated from High School, she earned her G.E.D. and attended college at Mesa College in Santa Barbera and Normandale College in Minnesota maintain a 4.0 GPA in all of her classes while raising a family and working full time with the help of grandma Borman who was like a third parent to Rick and Christopher.

In Minnesota she worked at High Park Specialty while also working as a dance instructor for Arthur Murray helping gold level dancers train (as she had all the skills). One of her dreams was to be a dancer and dance on Broadway, but a bad foot would not allow it. Even after foot surgery she could not continue her dancing career. The opportunity for a higher paying – better job brought her to General Mills Pilot Plant in Golden Valley, where she worked for Big G, Betty Crocker, Hamburger Helper and Yoplait where she made many good lifelong friends. While working for Big G Devision she received the chairman’s award for outstanding performance in 1989-1990. During those years she spent her free time on Lake Minnetonka fishing for monster Northern’s and other fishing adventures in Mexico, Jamaica, Florida, Texas, Washington and California.

As a young mother she celebrated her children as a soccer, hockey, karate mom, cub scout leader and a great organizer of events. Her parties were legendary to anyone who witnessed them, creating enduring, happy memories to all who attended. During these years while playing street hockey with the kids it was discovered that Cindi could not be scored on, which let to her career as a hockey goalie, playing for teams such as The Valley Girls, Sharp Shooters, San Diego Surf and fill in for many other teams as high as Junior A Hockey. She loved the thrill of one on one and shutting down even the best of players. From the beginning of Cindi and Ricks love story she loved riding on the back of Ricks motorcycles but wasn’t too long before she wanted a motorcycle of her own which Rick surprised her with her very own TS250 Suzuki Enduro and she became an excellent rider.

The joke she would play on Rick and the kids whenever she crashed, she would play dead as a joke, causing them to rush to her side where she would jump up and surprise us. A supercross jump while out on one of our desert excursions crash resulted in a broken jaw which later required plastic surgery to her mouth and chin.

After almost losing everything in a house fire she led her family to the next adventure by moving to San Diego, CA, immediately buying a large ocean boat, spawning a new era of ocean adventures on the Pacific Ocean. Shortly after arriving in California her family purchased a 10-acre hobby ranch in the Sierra Nevada Mountains where she fell in love with nature and wildlife. Up on the mountain she worked from home for American Veterans and proudly embraced the title of crazy cat lady as she bred pure bred cats and found the joy of feeding outside critters such as squirrels, rabbits, coyotes, foxes, skunks and birds of many kinds including a massive murder of crows.

She once took on a rattlesnake in her flipflops and robe with a garden shovel. A little-known fact is that Cindi played the saxophone and played it well, but she was shy and would only play it when she thought she was alone up on the mountain. Her heart was broken with the death of her oldest son, Ricki which tortured her for the rest of her life. Alone on the mountain her new quest was that no one that she loved would be forgotten on their birthday. Thus, spawning her visions of creating homemade birthday cards and never forgetting anyone.

She also hosted many of guests running to escape the bitter cold of the North, Cindi was always welcoming and generous to all guests. With retirement, she finally got her humble log cabin on a lake where she fished and boated the rest of her life.

God speed to our kind, gentle lady. A life well Lived.

A celebration of life will take place on Saturday, September 7, 2024 at 12:00 PM at the families resident 34302 Lee Road, Danbury, WI. Bring your chair and reminisce with all the memories.

Arrangements were entrusted to Swedberg-Taylor Funeral Home. Online condolences can be made at www.swedberg-taylor.com.