Doris Gerecht

Doris Gerecht was a fierce woman with a deep love of learning, adventure, and family. She had a quick wit, knowing smile, wonderful laugh, and the best “you’re-up-to-something” maternal gaze. She captivated her family with stories from her world travels including a honeymoon trip to Mexico by motorcycle, her first job at age 17 working in a radio crystal factory in Kansas City during World War II, a later job programming an early 1950s computer to do payroll and inventory at Santa Rosa Shoe and Boot, and her time working as a card shill at two casinos in Nevada. Doris earned degrees in both Mathematics and Psychology from UMKC in 1952 and continued learning throughout her life at any opportunity. She inspired those around her to do the same and to stay curious. She was an entrepreneur and owned several businesses in Kansas City including the Tax Gallery, a Topsy’s franchise, and The Eighth Day Coffee Shop. She loved to cook, bake, sew, and take care of and enjoy the Missouri farmland she cherished and called home for more than 30 years. She grew up gardening at her mother’s side as a child and created amazing flowerbeds of her own, especially as she became a Master Gardener in 2006. Irises were her favorite, but she was always on the hunt for the perfect true blue flower. She loved her family and friends enormously, but would never hold back in a game of Rummy. She sewed amazing quilts, outfits, and Halloween costumes. Doris gathered a wonderful art collection during her travels and then learned to sculpt and cast bronze busts of her own. She favored cats and dogs equally and was almost never without one by her side. In 2017 she moved to Denver, Colorado to be close to family and made fast friends of many staff at Brookdale Parkplace.

Doris’s family will miss her every day and includes her brother, David Barton; sons Wolfe and Reuel, and their spouses, Susie and Diane; her grandchildren Ryan and Heather Gerecht, Katy and Bryan Kaproth-Gerecht, Gaby Gerecht, Max Gerecht; her great-grandchildren Lillian, Clara, and Willa Gerecht; and her friend-family including Art and Sharon Kammerlohr and Mel and Terry Lottie. She is preceded by her parents Arthur and Claudine Barton and brother Bob Barton. Doris passed peacefully on her 94th and 2/3rds birthday and will be laid to rest with her parents in Holden, Missouri.