Gold Rush star Dakota Fred Hurt’s wife Lorrayne Hurt passed away earlier today

Former Gold Rush star Dakota Fred Hurt shared some very sad news with his fans on Facebook today, announcing that his wife Lorrayne Hurt passed away earlier today.

Fred posted the photo of his wife above and wrote:

After a long illness, my wife Lorrayne has passed away, February 2, 2015.
May she rest in peace.

Lorrayne F. Hurt

Fred shared this next photo back in 2010 and captioned it, “Lorrayne and her garden:”

Lorrayne may not be familiar to fans of Gold Rush, but her health issues were brought up on the show. Fred revealed in the Season 4 “Unearthed” that his wife had been very ill, adding “We thought that she was going to die.” Fred later addressed fans concerns about her health online, revealing that Lorrayne spent months in a nursing home before being able to return on Christmas Eve, 2013.

Fred wrote about an evening not long after Lorrayne’s return:

Got Wife home from hospital/Nursing Care facility Christmas Eve……………. Tonight, we are sitting in our Easy chairs watching the last episode of Gold Rush on the Tube. She says, “I guess it just wasn’t my time to go”………..then we talked about the upcoming mining in Alaska…………Porcupine, …McKinley Falls,…..and then….and then….HER program came on…Blue Bloods,……and then…ZZzz……I don’t remember anything else till now……… 🙂

He had stated previously, “We’ve both have had full, and happy, lives…..Let the chips fall where they may.”

Our thoughts are with Dakota Fred as well as his and Lorrayne’s families. If you wish to leave your condolences with Fred, I recommend you do so on his Facebook post about Lorrayne’s passing. He is very active on the page and is one of the most genuinely appreciative reality stars I’ve ever had the pleasure of keeping up with, so I’m sure it would mean the world to him.

UPDATE – The messages of support did mean the world to him. From Fred on February 7:

I would like to thank each and every one of you who have sent condolences for the passing of my wife Lorrayne. Seeing the many thousands who responded made my heart feel warm and comforted. The rites of burial are for saying a final ‘Goodbye’, and for healing the emotions of friends, relatives and acquaintances.

Today, I’d say we were blessed with total success……….Freddie….