Dorothy Combs

On Sunday, July 15th 2018, amid the singing of her favorite hymns and the reading of passages from Psalms & Proverbs, Dorothy Marie Combs quietly took refuge in the arms of her creator. She was 94 years old.

Dottie (as she was called) was born to Leon and Jenny Wojtkowiak of Camden, New Jersey, on July 9, 1924. Her sister Ruth (deceased) came along four years later, and the girls grew up in the warmth of their Polish neighborhood.

When Dottie was in high school, the family changed its name to Kerniect-an unfortunate misspelling of the German K oenig -but they kept it, anyway. She bore that name until her July 1945 marriage to Louis Kessler Combs, Jr. of Woodbury, New Jersey.

Her husband's career as a Methodist clergyman and military chaplain meant the family lived in a number of locations: New Jersey, Illinois, Kansas, Germany, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, and Colorado. Dottie once counted the number of homes-38 of them- she and Louis had lived in together. Wherever she found herself, Dottie made fast friends with her sunny disposition and ready laugh.

She worked early on as an ad copy editor for Curtiss Publishing (Philadelphia) and as an ad designer for the Gettysburg Gazette . She later served as an admissions clerk at Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, Minnesota, and still later as office manager for a Topeka, Kansas surgeon. Dottie's true vocation, though, was in the church. She played piano and organ, sang and directed choirs, and chaired various compassion ministries.

Dottie LOVED to sing. Family members received a singing birthday greeting every year. Even when she yawned she often sang a scale! She loved gardening, crafts, sewing, cross-stitch and needlepoint. She loved to play dominoes with her friends at Heather Gardens. She loved her family and friends, her caregivers, and random folks she would encounter when she was out and about. She loved God. She loved.

The family, including five children (and spouses), eleven grandchildren (and spouses), and thirteen great-grandchildren, is grateful for the outpouring of sympathy and kindness from so many near and far.

Rest in peace, Dorothy Marie, you are forever loved and forever remembered.