- Date Of Birth: October 6, 1937
- Date Of Death: August 22, 2011
- State: Texas
October 6, 1937 – August 22, 2011
Dorothy (Dottye) Reasor Young, 73, died from respiratory failure August 22, 2011, with her family by her side in Fair Oaks Ranch, TX. The youngest of five girls, she was born October6, 1937 in the coal mining town of Dunbar, VA to Emma and JamesReasor. Her father was the manager of the local coal mining company store. Her mother was a teacher. Both parents were raised on family farms in Lee County, VA. Highlights of Dottye”s childhood included fishing with her dad, collecting blackberries for her mom”s pies, earning pocket money doing ironing and giving home perms to neighbors, and challenging most of the boys she knew to a foot race at one time or another”and winning! Dottye moved from Dunbar to Kokomo, IN at age fifteen. She graduated from Kokomo High School in 1955 and then attended Indiana University earning her degree in elementary education. While there, she was an active member of the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority and the Young Republicans. She moved to Ann Arbor, MI upon graduation in 1959, where she started her teaching career and met and married Glen Young in 1961. Dottye and Glen spent their early years traveling the U.S. for his work with General Electric Co. and she taught in six states during that time. They started their family in Grand Rapids, MI and then moved around the Midwest, Northeast and overseas to Antwerp, Belgium. While based there, the family enjoyed wonderful trips throughout Europe and a safari in Kenya. They returned to upstate New York and then Birmingham, MI where Glen retired from GE. They then moved to San Antonio TX and together they owned and operated MailBoxEtc. stores for twelve years, greatly enjoying their long-standing customers and the opportunity to work together. In2000, they sold their business and embarked upon their next adventure ” creating a family/retirement retreat on Platte Lake in northern Michigan. They spent all of their extended summers there ” hosting family and friends from near and far. It became the perfect place to reconnect with so many people after a lifetime of moving from place to place. The grandchildren cherished the weeks they spent at both the “hot tub” house (San Antonio) and the “lake house” baking, talking and just being with their Mimi. Dottye”s interests included gardening, baking, tennis, home improvement projects, following politics and reading. Dottye was an ardent basketball fan ” March Madness being her favorite time of year. She religiously followed her Indiana Hoosiers and her adopted hometown San Antonio Spurs. She devoted much of her time and energy as a cancer survivor to helping others by volunteeringat the cancer center in San Antonio where she received all of her own treatments” bringing home-baked cookies to patients and caregivers , sitting with patients for their chemo treatments and offering a supportive hug, ear and presence to those who needed it ” along with her own experience of being a survivor. Dottye is survived by her loving husband, Glen Young of Fair Oaks Ranch, TX and Honor, MI; her daughters and their spouses, Krista Young and David Oldow of Mansfield, MA and Sara Young and Graham Ritter of Bloomfield Hills, MI; her five grandchildren, Maddie, Emma and Peter Oldow and Blake and Cameron Ritter; and her sister and brother-in-law, Jo and Ed Ellis of Attleboro, MA. She is pre-deceased by her sisters; Eleanor June Hoover, Margaret (Peggy) Delia McCowan and Mary Ruth Reasor.
