Dottie Marie Whitman
Dottie Marie Whitman: Life Story
Birth
I was born July 26, 1939 as Doris Marie Young in Deering, Missouri. My mother’s name was Mary Katherine Goodman Young and my father was Bernie Floyd Young. At this time I had two older brothers, Glen; age 4, and Bill; age 2, but two years later my mother had another boy named Merle. I believe, but cannot be certain, that she had another boy two years after Merle. I do not remember his name, but I believe he died as an infant and was buried at one of my grandparent’s on a farm. I do not remember much about being with my grandparents, but one thing happened that I will never forget. I was wrapped in a blanket and taken out to the chicken coop where I was put on the floor. I don’t know how long I was out there, but the chickens were jumping all over me. The reason this was done is because I had “chicken pox”!
Foster Homes
My brothers and I lived with a lot of different people because my father would take us to various homes and ask them to keep us until he found a job. This went on for several years because I think he wanted to keep us away from our mother. The last family we lived with were in St. Louis, Missouri. While we were there the child services picked us up and took us to Caruthersville Missouri. My mother and father were forced to sign relinquishment papers on their four children. My brothers and I were put in a foster home in Haiti, Missouri. Things that happened to us while we were there were not good. I remember going into town with my brothers and begging for food. One night the police came and said they were getting reports that kids were throwing rocks at cars going by. The people we were staying with said all their children were in bed asleep. We did throw rocks at passing cars, and they knew it!
Adoption
While we were in Haiti living with the Williams, our foster parents, our case worker was in Caruthersville just a few miles away. She happened to be a good friend of Marjorie’s who was teaching music, choir, and band at the high school there. She started telling Marjorie about my brother and me and about the orphanages all being full. Marjorie became very excited and said she would love to have a school aged little girl. Several months later Marjorie and I were on our way to Malden where Marjorie’s mother lived—about 50 miles from Caruthersville. Marjorie was in Caruthersville during the week teaching but went home to Malden every weekend. I was told to call Marjorie, Marjorie, because she had never married, and I was to call her mother mama. Mama, I believe, was in her late 70’s when I started living with her. I was not allowed to start school that year because I was malnourished and in poor health. I started school the next year at the age of seven. Mama was a wonderful person. She read me a story from Grimm’s Fairy Tales every night. The summer before I was to start 3rd grade, Mama died.
Marjorie
Marjorie was offered a job teaching voice at Southwestern University in Memphis, Tennessee. While we were there, a talent scout brought a young man named Elvis Presley to our home. The talent scout wanted Marjorie to tell him what she thought of his voice. She also played “The Missouri Waltz” with President Truman. I do not know if he was president at that time.
Marjorie played the organ on Sunday mornings at a Baptist church. We became good friends with the minister and his family. They had adopted a girl named Joyce. We were good friends. Unfortunately, they moved to Arizona. Just before Christmas in 1951 Marjorie became very ill. She was hospitalized for about three months. When she did get out she was confined to bed for another six weeks. During all this time I lived with a lot of people I did not know. It did not bother me because I had done this many times before, plus these were very nice people. Evidently, Marjorie and Dr. Smith (Baptist minister) had been doing a lot of talking because we left Memphis during the summer of 1952.
Tucson, Arizona
Tucson—Here we come—I remember coming over a hill and seeing Tucson stretched out in front of us and saying, “We are home!” This was the beginning of my life.
Music Talent
I started 6th grade in the fall of 1952 at Roscrouge Elementary School. During the summer of 1954 we moved north into the Amphitheater School District. The man who taught music there (choir) was fantastic. I was constantly on the go to the choir quartet and solo competitions. I ended up winning a full music scholarship to the U of A.
Tucson House
Marjorie organized the Tucson Civic Opera Society, which is still going strong. She gave many musicals in the back yard of our home. (Diagram of house) A) raised semi-circle in the living room with large doors that opened out onto another raised semi-circle outside on the patio. Her baby grand piano could be moved easily in or out.
Marriage
Tucson is where I met my husband. He was a first lieutenant in the Air force and a pilot. He was stationed at Davis Monthan Air Force Base. I met him through a mutual friend. Within three or four months I knew I wanted to be his bride. I did not tell him that! After about a year, we started talking about marriage, so Marjorie said she wanted to talk to him. She told him that she had gotten me to be her life companion and did not want me to get married. But, she said that after waiting 1 ½ years if we still wanted to get married she would not stand in the way. Three months later, October 1959, John and I went to Nogales, Arizona and were married by a justice of the peace. My best friend was the only one who know what we had done. On January 22, 1960 we were married at the First Christian Church in Tucson. Marjorie attended. She wanted us to live with her, so we did for approximately six months. I don’t remember it being too awful. We lived in Tucson only nine months before being transferred to Bermuda. Marjorie did not want to live in her house any longer, so we helped her move into an apartment.
Bermuda
Before leaving for Bermuda we drove to Rockford, Illinois to be with John’s family for a while. John left for Bermuda first because he had to find a house for us before I could go. There was no base housing. I believe I was in Rockford for about a month when John called and said he had found a house. Whoopee! John’s mother drove me to Chicago and then I flew from there to New York and then to Bermuda.
Bermuda was beautiful! Small, but beautiful. We had to drive on the left hand side of the road which took some getting used to. We had not been in Bermuda very long before we got a phone call from a friend of Marjorie’s. They said something had to be done about Marjorie. The never said exactly what was wrong, only that we needed to do something. We flew Marjorie from Tucson to Bermuda. (She lived with us until she died many years later when we lived in Arkansas.)
Baby John
We lived in Bermuda about 2 ½ years. During which time after having three miscarriages, I gave birth to our first child on September 13, 1962, John Donald Whitman. He weighed 6 lbs. 6 ¾ ozs. While I was in the hospital, after having John, several things happened to me that were at the time very alarming. I asked the girl I was sharing a room with if this was her first child. She said “no”, so I asked her the age of her first child. She told me it had died as an infant of walking pneumonia. I later learned that this was not a rare incident in Bermuda. The second frightening thing happened on the day we were going to be shown how to bathe our newborns. I walked into the room that this was to take place and, oh my gosh, the nurse was holding this naked screaming baby. It was my baby, John! I could not stand to watch him cry so I left the room and never learned how to bathe him! The third scariest thing that happened was when I picked baby John up from his little bed, there was blood all over the sheet. I put John on my bed and ran out the door screaming for a nurse. When she got to my room she took his diaper off and found the problem. The small seal that had been put on his little “man thing” at the time of circumcision had come off and was bleeding. No Big Problem! By the way, when I had John, women were kept in the hospital for five days. When I finally got home, I was a nervous wreck, but the shocks were not over. Big John told me he had to go on alert for a week. That meant I would not see him for a week. Thank goodness his navigator’s wife came over and stayed with me. Everything went well for a while, but John did not have a bowel movement for a couple of days, so I called the hospital and was told to give him some apple juice. I ran to the commissary and got apple juice and ran back home and filled one of his baby bottles and gave it to him. He loved it! The next morning when I changed his diaper, I got a real shock—he was covered with a severe diaper rash. I rushed to the phone and called the hospital. The doctor told me to remove his diaper and put a lamp (goose necked) at the front of his crib. He also said to put something heavy at the base of the lamp so that it would not fall over on him. I was to let him lie under the light from that lamp for five minutes, no longer. I adjusted the lamp so that it was directly over his diaper area and put a brick on the base of the lamp so that it would not fall over on him, and I turned on the lamp. All of a sudden I realized I did not have a watch or clock, so I ran into the kitchen to get one, and from baby John’s room comes this blood curdling scream. Oh My God—the lamp has fallen over on him and is burning a hole through him. I rushed back into his room and was relieved to see the lamp was still upright, but his foot was plastered on the bulb. I took his little foot off the light bulb, threw the lamp on the floor and ran to the phone to call the hospital. After the doctor bandaged his foot, he asked me, “Do you have a Dr. Spock book?” I said, “No.” He said, “I strongly advise you to get one.”
Manhattan, Kansas
Big John came home one day and said that he had received orders to go to Manhattan. I said, “Oh no, I don’t want to live in New York.” I was relieved when he said it was Manhattan Kansas. Bermuda was beautiful, but it was getting pretty small.
We flew from Bermuda to Chicago where John’s mom and dad picked us up and drove us back to Rockford. While we were there, we picked up a stray dog and named him Fido. He went with us to Manhattan.
John was assigned to teach Air Science at Kansas State University. We found a house with a fenced in back yard for baby John and Fido. All went well the first month or so and then Fido disappeared, never to be seen again. We later learned that you would never see a stray dog running around because there was a large vet school at the university.
Susan and Joann Born
While we were in Kansas we lived in four different houses and had two more children. Susan Diane was born on July 27th 1964. Joann Patricia was born on September 28th 1965. They were born at Fort Reilly Army Base just a few miles from Manhattan. When Susan was around six months old, John decided he was going to powder his baby sister like his mommy did, only he did it with comet. She was fine. I just rinsed her off really good in the sink. One evening, John and I planned a night out and got a baby sitter. We were just about to leave when there was a loud thud and an even louder scream from Joann. She had rolled off the changing table while the baby sitter had turned away to get a diaper. Joann was fine, but we did not go out. I know the baby sitter felt terrible about what happened. There three other rather disturbing events while we were in Kansas. Susan broker her leg while getting off her teeter totter, Joann had pneumonia, and John was taken to the emergency room at the hospital because we thought he had swallowed his father’s Masonic ring. After we got to the hospital we found the ring in his pocket. Oh yes, one more thing, our neighbors were LDS. She told me a lot of things about the church and about the temple and temple garments. I used to look out our window when she was hanging out her laundry to see if she had hung out any strange looking underwear.
Vietnam
John came home one day and told me he was being sent to Vietnam. What a shock! I told him I wanted to be in Tucson while he was gone. He was gone for over 1 ½ years. Part of that time was training at Stewart Air Force Base south of Nashville, Tennessee. While he was gone, the children and I had mumps, Susan had her tonsils removed, and John flunked 1st grade. I cannot tell you how wonderful it was to have John back home. I was living again, not just existing.
Fayetteville, North Carolina
Our next assignment was at Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Our home in Fayetteville was beautiful. There was a creek down a hill behind our house where John loved to play. One day he brought up a small snake for everyone to see. He said the snake did not bite, so I touched it, and it did not bite. Susan touched it and it did not bite. Joann touched it and it bit her. One day, Joann decided she was going to run away from home. I watched as she walked a few yards from the house and turned around and came back. She said she could not run away because she had to go to the bathroom. One other thing happened while we were in Fayetteville that I would like to write about. One day we could not find Susan and were getting ready to call the police, then I looked under the dining room table and there was Susan sound asleep on one of the chairs.
Minneapolis, Minnesota
In June of 1971 John was transferred to Minneapolis, Minnesota as an Air Force advisor to the Minnesota Air National Guard. We enjoyed the three years we were there. Joann started 1st grade, Susan 2nd and John 3rd. One day I was visiting with my neighbor, having a cup of coffee and smoking a cigarette, when there was a knock on her door. She opened the door and there were two missionaries. I heard her say, “We are not interested” and closed the door. I immediately stood up and said, “I’m interested.” I went out her back door and ran home just as the missionaries were ringing the doorbell. The next three months were a lot of fun. The children loved playing games with the elders. John and I did too! All five of us were baptized into the Mormon Church. Now I would be able to have my own “special garments.”
Hawaii
About six months after we were baptized, we were transferred to Hawaii in June 1974, where we were married and sealed in the temple, and yes, I did get my very own “special garments.” Our whole family loved being in Hawaii, especially John. He was a scout and had many adventures he could not have had anyplace else. We all did. John retired from the Air Force while we were there.
Flagstaff, Arizona
In June of 1976 we moved to Flagstaff, Arizona. John wanted to get his Master’s degree at NAU. We had told the children that we would have a white Christmas the first winter we were there, but it didn’t not snow that year until late in January. What a way to start a new civilian life. We bought a house west of Flagstaff in an area called Fort Valley. We started out with five acres but sold two before we left. We had a pig, a cow, a goat, rabbits, a duck, and two horses. Susan and Joann had the horses, Daddy had the cow and pig, and I got to milk the goat! One day I asked Susan if I could ride her horse. She said yes. The whole family came out to watch me ride. I got on Blue (the horse’s name because he had blue eyes) and started out. It was a lot of fun until we got to a cross road and Blue took off. I was holding on for dear life and yelling “HELP.” I was able to look toward the house and saw the whole family waving at me. I guess they thought I was having fun. After what seemed to be a long time, Blue stopped at the house of a friend of Susan’s who also had a horse—a female horse. I was so happy to be getting down off that horse. I left Blue there and walked home. I have never ridden a horse since. Susan was quite a horse woman. She was in a lot of competitions and won a lot of them in Flagstaff and Tucson. She started riding in Hawaii so we promised we would get her a horse when we got to Flagstaff. (She lives in Flagstaff today and has two horses.)
Tucson, Arizona
In June of 1979 we moved to Tucson. John was 17, Susan 15, and Joann 14 years of age. We put all the children in private schools off and on. They all attended Amphitheater High School where I graduated from in 1958. John D. graduated from Kino High School, a private school. Susan graduated from Amphitheater and Joann from CDO. Susan got Valley Fever and had to be privately tutored from home for one semester. One day, John D. came running in with a letter in his hand yelling, “I knew I was going to get a foreign mission.” We were all so excited to hear where he was going. Finally, he said, “I’m going to Alaska.” We were so proud of him.
Rogers, Arkansas
I think it was about a year after John went on his mission, Susan had graduated but Joann had another semester left. John and I decided we were going to move to Arkansas. Joann was pregnant. (February 1983) Our first trip to Rogers, Arkansas both girls went with us. In our final trip, Susan decided not to go. We had already picked out a house, so when we got there all we had to do was unpack the large moving van John had rented. Four or five very nice men from our ward came out to help. It was done in one evening. Our ward was wonderful. They accepted Joann with open arms. I can’t remember if John came home first or if Joann had her baby first, but the two things happened, and we were happy about both. We were so happy to see John. It had been more than two years since we had seen him. We loved hearing all about his mission. Joann gave us our first grandchild. Her name is Susan Marie and she is beautiful!
John loved being on the lake fishing and swimming and just having a good time. We had a pontoon boat which I loved. There was plenty of room to lounge around in. Many wonderful, good times were had on Beaver Lake.
Children Married
Meanwhile Susan was back in Tucson going to school to become a vet’s assistant. We missed her so much. John had a girlfriend and her name was Camilla. She was a beautiful young woman and very sweet. I hoped the two of them would get married.
Joann met a young man home from his mission and looking for a wife. His name was Blaine Law, and after approximately one year they were married and sealed in the Salt Lake Temple. Susan Marie went to the temple with them and was sealed to them. Later on Joann and Blaine had two awesome children, Catherine Diane and Blaine David. They moved to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. After five years they were divorced. Joann then married Pete Sottnick and had a beautiful baby girl they named Jennifer. I really liked Pete.
John and Camilla did get married. I was so happy. They were married in the Mesa, Arizona Temple. Two years later they had a baby boy named John Michael. Later on they had a darling baby girl named Siara. They are exceptional children. John got a Master’s degree in Elementary Education Administration. He joined the Marines and was in the 1st Gulf War. He ended up back in Bentonville working for Wal-Mart.
Susan Diane, still in Tucson, married Matt Hamilton, an architect. They had a baby girl named Sarah and a boy named Ben. John and I went back to Tucson to see Sarah when she was born. Sarah is an amazing young woman and is now (2017) working on a PHD in Business Psychology.
I could write a book about my wonderful grandchildren. Each one of them is exceptional and holds a special place in my heart.
Back to Arizona
John and I left Rogers in 1997 or 1998. We went back to Tucson and bought a park model at Western Way on the west side of Tucson. Little Susan decided she wanted to come and live with us, so we sold our “little house” and moved to Pierce, Arizona. We bought a house right across the street from the church. It was very convenient. There were no stores there, just a filling station with candy and some foods. Susan finished her home schooling and got her high school diploma and then went back to Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
RV Traveling
We left Pierce in 2002 and went back to Tucson. We bought a trailer in Harrison Hills and lived there for a little over a year. On Monday, April 21, 2003, we left Harrison Hills and went to St. David Arizona to our first RV park. We had purchased a motor home from Beaudry RV. This was the beginning of our life on the road.
While traveling in our beautiful motor home we spent a lot of time in Utah with John and Camilla. Utah is the most beautiful state there is. I guess I should say Utah and Arizona are the most beautiful states. We traveled all over the country and had a wonderful time. I would recommend full time RVing to anyone. There is never a dull moment.
Casa Grande, Arizona
We finally called it quits in 2009 while in Casa Grande, Arizona. We were getting too old. We bought a home there and stayed for four years. During this time, Joann came to live with us, and Susan Marie came down from Colorado to stay with us. Susan had just gotten her Health Science Degree while in Colorado and was now looking for a job. While she was with us she met her husband to be who lived in Phoenix. He was a return missionary. His father is a Bishop and a dentist. We were very happy for her. They moved to California. After living through a very large Haboob (dust storm) we decided to move to Camp Verde, Arizona in June 2013.
Camp Verde, Arizona
Here we are in Camp Verde! What a beautiful place. We have been here now for almost four years. Our daughter Susan lives in Flagstaff so we see her quite often. Joann is still with us and has her own little place in our back yard. We have a little over an acre here. We have several pets, a dog named Bear, two cats named Tiger and Little Girl, and nine hens. We started out with ten but something got one of them. We love being someplace where there is little pollution of any kind. Everything is bright and crisp looking.
Since we have retired from RVing, our family has grown considerably. John Michael and Kaity have given us a great grandson, Siara and Nate have given us two great grandsons, and Cathy and Daniel have given us a great granddaughter and has another on the way. There are no words to write how proud, happy, and grateful I am for my family. The head of my family is my husband John, who is the most wonderful person I have ever known. How could our family be anything but awesome!
To be continued…
I am aware that I have left out a lot. Some was because I cannot remember things anymore and some because I thought it would be better for someone else to tell the story. Of anyone wants to add more to this I will be delighted.
Extras
Blaine David Law
Blaine David Law was born on September 4, 1986 in Rogers, Arkansas. He was Blaine and Joann’s second child. I remember he always had a big smile for me. He and his family moved to Broken Arrow when he was around two years of age. He excelled in everything he did. He was a top student, an Eagle Scout, and had a black belt in Tai Kwando. He was in the Young Republican Group in high school and gave the State of the State Address in Oklahoma City. He had a double major in college in math and physics from the U of W in Madison, Wisconsin. Before college he joined the Oklahoma Army National Guard and spent a year in Iraq. While in training at Fort Benning, he and eighteen others were struck by lightning. It was talked about on CNN and had a big write-up in the Tulsa Newspaper. Blaine married Kate Rogers on June 16, 2012. On January 15, 2016 Blaine ended his life. He was buried in Arlington Cemetery on June 16, 2016 on his and Kate’s fourth wedding anniversary. Because of war and PTSD, the world lost an exceptional man at the age of 29.
Ben Hamilton
Benjamin Hamilton, the second child of Susan and Matt Hamilton, was born on . I remember him saying the cutest things. When he was around three years old, he and his mom came to visit us in Rogers, Arkansas. While they were there we went to Silver Dollar City in Branson, Missouri. Ben was looking at a small stuffed animal that was running around on the sidewalk. After a while he looked up at us and said, “He no real.” I will always remember that. One day he was talking to me about his computer (“compu-tater”). What a sweetie he was. I home schooled Ben for a while before we went on the road for nine years. While living in Flagstaff with his mother, he began running around with some not so good boys. One night he was out with some of them and was told to shoot one of them. He was sent to prison. To this day I do not know if Ben or one of the other boys pulled the trigger. It does not matter to me because I know Ben is no killer. I love Ben just as I do every other member of my family. My hope is that I will see Ben again before I die. I would like to tell him just how much I love him.
So succinct and well written! It’s awesome! Thanks grandma for sharing!