Darlene Elaine Langston

September 15, 1944 - November 17, 2024

Lifelong Woodland resident Darlene Langston, who ran the Yolo County Special Olympics and led 4-H programs for her daughter and other special needs children, died of natural causes on Nov. 17, 2024. She was 80.

A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024, at McNary’s Chapel, 458 College St., Woodland. Burial will follow at the Woodland Cemetery. Attendees are invited to a reception after the service.

Darlene was born on Sept. 15, 1944, the first child of Irene and Harley Rominger. Darlene’s parents brought her home from the hospital to the rural Woodland ranch where Irene also grew up. It was on this land that Darlene spent her formative years, shooting tin cans with BB guns, helping her father with farm crops, playing hide-and-seek behind barns, raising 4-H cattle and frolicking around the land with her beloved Shetland pony, Peanut.

Darlene and her sister, Kathleen, developed a farmer’s work ethic at the ranch and on grazing land near Interstate 505. At the age of 10, they learned to drive a stick-shift truck while their father stood in the back, chucking bales of alfalfa hay for 100 head of cattle. 

She left the farm to head up the road to Sacramento State, where she majored in recreation. Darlene later got married in 1965 to Charles Langston, beginning a marriage that would last nearly 60 years. At first, it was a relationship sparked by annoyance. Charles sat behind Darlene Rominger, three years his younger, and broke her pencils and tugged on her hair during study hall at Woodland High School. The football star must have elicited Darlene’s attention.

A couple years later, when Darlene was still a high school senior, Charles proposed marriage. But why at such a young age?

“He liked me,” Darlene recently said. “He didn’t want me to get away.”

In 1968, they were blessed with the birth of their daughter, Annette. When she walked before she could crawl, it brought some suspicion to her parents. Doctors later determined that Annette had neurofibromatosis, a rare genetic disorder that typically causes benign tumors of the nerves and growths in other parts of the body.

Annette and her parents did not let this intellectual and physical disability deter her from having a great quality of life. Darlene started a 4-H program specifically for those with special needs, called 4-H PEP (Program for Exceptional Persons). She also served as the Special Olympics’ Yolo County program director, where she attended all of Annette’s track meets, including the state championship at the University of California, Los Angeles.

When she wasn’t busy with Annette’s activities, Darlene was the office manager at a downtown Woodland carpet store called The Carpet Dealer. 

After these three decades of experiences away from home, she came back to live at the ranch in 1995 to give care to her ailing mother. Irene died at home on Nov. 18, 2001. And that same family homestead – where Darlene spent her first days on Earth, where she rode her pony past the tractors, where she watched the sun set over the tomato crops – was the place she passed on to be with God and family.

Darlene overcame many tragedies and challenges during her life. She was a breast cancer survivor and persevered amid many other health ailments. Darlene supported her husband and daughter while they were in hospice care earlier this year. Charles passed away six months ago; Annette died three months later. Despite the heartbreak, Darlene kept a positive attitude.

Darlene is survived by her sister Kay Huff, sister-in-law Susan Ward, and nephews Ryan Huff, Tyler Huff and Clifford Langston. 

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made in Darlene’s name by mailing a check to the Yolo Volunteer Fire Department, P.O. Box 11, Yolo, CA 95697.