Dee Grinenko

Dee Grinenko, a midwest native who relocated to Florida in her twenties, moves here from her home in the Boonsboro neighborhood, where she has resided for the past six years.

Her husband, Donald (Donte) Grinenko is a retired school social worker who has resided in the Drinkard wing since last December. 

Dee is an artisan whose hand-crafted baskets grace many homes in St. George Island, Florida where she and Donte moved after retiring in the early 2000s. Prior to retirement, Dee had a colorful career as a registered nurse, tending the sprained ankles and bee stings of tipsy visitors to Busch Gardens in Tampa and aiding concert-goers and football fans at Tampa Stadium. The peak of her career found her developing the role of wellness coordinator as an occupational nurse at Honeywell Tampa/Clearwater. She attended Truro Infirmary nursing school in New Orleans as a young adult and later completed her BA in education at the University of South Florida.

Dee’s baskets — in natural colors, coastal themes, and all sizes —  are regularly featured at Dale’s Downtown Books in Apalachicola, Florida. Dee continues to weave functional basics, specializing in Shaker styles and miniatures and has recently taken up watercolor painting. She’s enjoyed swimming as a Canterbury club member for the past six years. You will probably see her outdoors weaving baskets, bird-watching, or sharing lunch with Donte. 

Donte, who grew up in Dearborn, MI, loved to coax fresh vegetables and lush flowers from the earth. Before moving to Florida as a young man, he played college football for Eastern Michigan University and completed his master’s degree in social work at Wayne State University. He was the first in his Ukrainian-immigrant family to graduate college. His master’s thesis explored group therapy for troubled youth, a passion he kept alive throughout his career as a licensed clinical social worker. He was an old school farm-to-table provider, tending an orange grove and raising his own pigs, chickens, cows, and sheep on a five-acre farm in Dover, Florida, where they raised their three daughters. He loved to make his own beer, sauerkraut and dill pickles long before Pinterest told us how.  

Donte and Dee have three daughters, Dori, Dawn and Deidre. Dori and her husband, Lincoln, reside up the road on Linden Avenue and are members of the Canterbury Club. Dori is feminist theologian whose book “Girl/Friend Theology” comes out in a revised anniversary edition next month. Dori’s two adult daughters, Erin and Olivia, visit their grandparents often from their homes in California. Dawn (Craig) is a physician living in Hayesville, NC, where she created a non-profit retreat for families of terminally ill children and grieving parents called The Still Place. Deidre (Amy) is a veterinarian living in Albuquerque, NM.  

Donte and Dee met on a blind date in New Orleans while he was on spring break from college and she was in nursing school. They have been married for 63 years.