Dorothy Dot Mae Word's Obituary
Dorothy Dot Mae Higgins Word
A celebration of life and memories for Dorothy Dot Mae Higgins Word will be held at 12 Noon Wednesday at the First Presbyterian Church with Rev. Jonathan Jehorek officiating under direction of Rader Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Rosewood Park. The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Tuesday evening from 6 until 8 PM. She passed away peacefully on Saturday, May 21, 2011, at the age of 90.
Dorothy Dot Mae Higgins was born December 17, 1920, in Mingo Junction, Ohio, to Mr. and Mrs. A. B. Higgins. The family moved to West Virginia where Dot finished high school in 1938. She went on to Bowling Green College of Commerce in Kentucky where she was active in Kappa Beta Pi Sorority and the yearbook staff; she graduated in May 1941 with a B. A. in Commercial Education. It was in college where she met her future husband, Thomas Sampson T.S. or Tom Word, with whom she would share 54 years. They married on October 10, 1941.
Dot held may careers; she started out as a teacher in Hartsville, Tennessee, and then followed Tom to Kingsport when he was hired by Tennessee Eastman, and she worked at a power plant. During the war and Tom's military service, they moved to Biloxi, MS, then to Ipsilanta, MI, and later to Denver, CO. IN Denver, Dot worked at a real estate office and an egg dehydration plant. In 1945 Tom was honorably discharged, and the couple moved back to Kingsport, began their family, and bought their first home. In 1951 the Words transferred to Longview for the start-up of the new Texas Eastman plant. During their years in Longview, Mrs. Word stayed busy with four children and their activities including sports, Scouts, Camp Fire, dancing, school, and church, a husband, and a home. The whole family was also active in the First Presbyterian Church. After her last child was born, she still had the energy to be a substitute teacher, and she also worked as the financial secretary for the church form 1979 to 1986. In later years she enjoyed traveling with her husband he passed away in 1996 and family and being a member of the Garden Study Club.
Left to cherish her memory are her son, Jim and his wife, Barbara of Round Rock; her daughter, Barbara Hawkins and her husband, Terry of Longview; son, Glenn Word of Houston; and daughter, Beth Longwell, and her husband, Mike of Austin; Grandchildren, Ashley Stephens and her husband Matt of Waco; Kristy Hawkins of Emeryville, CA; Lori Hawkins of Kilgore; Lorna Longwell of Austin; and John Longwell of San Marcos; great grandchildren, Rachael and Sarah Stephens of Waco; and several nieces and nephews.
Our family will be forever grateful to the entire staffs of Songbird Assisted Living and Assist Care home Health for their devoted care for Mother over the past three years.
Memorial gifts may be made to the First Presbyterian Church or to a charity of your choice.
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