Obituary Information Form

Name of the Deceased: Dorothy Barnes Stephens

Age: 91

Address: 1909 24th St. Anacortes, WA 98221

Place of Death: Island Hospital, Anacortes, WA 98221

Date of Death: 2/7/2014

Cause of Death: Stroke

How Long a resident in the area?: August of 2011-present Anacortes, WA. Prior resident was in Spanaway, WA since the summer of 1979.

Years alive: 1922-2014

Date of Birth: April 22nd, 1922

Birthplace: Santa Ana, California

Occupation: Navy WAVES in WWII, homemaker, substitute schoolteacher in South Florida

Retired: 1979

Survivors:

Spouse: James Russell Stephens, Anacortes, WA

Sons: (1) James Ian Stephens and wife Vicki Stephens, Georgetown, TX (2) Paul David Stephens and wife Suzanne Stephens, Battleground, WA (3) John Raymond Stephens and wife Morag Mckinlay-Stephens, Tauranga, New Zealand.

Daughters: Diana Joan Smith and husband Loren Smith, Anacortes, WA

Grandchildren: (1) Dana Joy Smith and wife Stefanie Smith, Anacortes, WA (2) June Marie Gardner and husband Cory Gardner, Anacortes, WA (3) Rosanna Claire Chan and husband Danny Chan, Panorama City, CA (4) Brian Joseph Stephens and wife Abbey Stephens, Van Nuys, CA (5) Matthew James Stephens, Eugene, OR.

Great-Grandchildren: Alister James Gardner, Anacortes, WA

Sisters: (1) Charlotte and Ed Sauer, Spokan Valley, WA (2) MimaJean Hughes, Florida

OBITUARY INFO

Dorothy Barnes Stephens (AKA “Dottie”) was born April 22nd, 1922 at 12:30 p.m. in the Community Hospital located in Santa Anna, California to Ray and Nila Barnes. She died February 7th, 2014 at 5:00 a.m. at Island Hospital in Anacortes, WA surrounded by her family.

Dottie grew up in southern Idaho and Orange County, California. She graduated from Tustin High School in 1940 and then entered Santa Ana Junior College where she met her future husband, James Russell Stephens (AKA J.R.), in art class.

In December of 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor prompted J.R. to ask Dottie to wait for him until the end of the war, which she agreed to do. However, as J.R.’s time of service drew closer in the summer of 1942, Dottie and J.R. decided to elope. They married on September 6th in Yuma, Arizona at the First Presbyterian Church.

At the time, J.R. worked for Douglas Aircraft and the two newlyweds moved into J.R.’s parents house while the drama of war and enlistment played out around the United States. Just ten days after returning home as husband and wife, J.R. accepted an offer to train at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles with the Army’s Pictorial Service, a division of the Signal Corps, in order to become a combat photographer. This position allowed J.R. and Dottie to share five months together before J.R. was called to active duty in the Philippines.

One month after J.R. left for basic training, Dottie joined the Navy’s division of “Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service”, or WAVES. Dottie trained as a radio operator at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. After turning down an offer to attend Officer Candidate School due to her high scores at Miami University, she was assigned to the Naval Radio Station (NPG3) at Treasure Island in San Francisco. She served in the Navy WAVES until April, 1945.

J.R. and Dottie reunited again during their wartime service when Dottie and J.R. were both assigned to Hawaii by coincidence. Although it was difficult to meet around their different duty schedules, they made it work. As a result, Dottie became pregnant with their first child while in Hawaii, and Japan’s surrender and her shipment back to California for discharge were almost simultaneously. J.R. did not return until January of 1946, and in February, 1946, they gave birth to their first son, James Ian Stephens.

J.R. re-enlisted with the Army at the end of World War II, and in the following years leading up to 1965, J.R. and Dottie had three more children: Paul David, Diana Joan, and John Raymond. The family was stationed in Greece, Austria, Arizona, California, England, France, and Virginia.

J.R. also spent 15 months in Korea away from the family after recovering from non-paralytic polio contracted in Austria. Dottie lovingly helped nurse J.R. back to health with physical therapy and hot baths.

In Tombstone, Arizona, Dottie joined a historical reenactment group where she played an 1800s lady of the town and also a dance hall girl. While in France, she was known around town as “La madam avec le petite voiture rouge”, or in English, “The lady with the little red car”. In fact, she was so well known that when President Kennedy was shot, the villagers piled into their living room, where Dottie made coffee for everyone and tried to communicate as best she could with her limited French.

Education was extremely important in the Stephens’ household, and between Dottie, J.R., and the four children, 10 college degrees were awarded. In addition, all four children served in the military: two in the Navy, one in the Army, and one in the Air Force.

When all of the four children had left home in the 1970s, Dottie took up substitute school teaching at the same high school that J.R. taught at in South Florida. They both retired in 1979.

From the summer of 1979 to the summer of 2011, J.R. and Dottie spent their lives together on five acres of beautiful forestland. This home is where their grandchildren visited them for the first time and grew to love them dearly. It was in Washington that Dottie was able to explore many of her talents: ceramics, playing the electronic organ, crafting dolls and teddy bears, as well as practicing her long-time hobby as an amateur radio operator with the federal call sign K7JQA, even becoming a charter member of the Society of Wireless Pioneers.

In the summer of 2011, J.R. and Dottie bought a house in Anacortes, WA to be near their daughter Diana and her family. The humor, love, and joy Dottie brought to the world will never be forgotten by those who loved her. Her daughter Diana is especially thankful to have had almost three years to really get to reconnect with her mother and rediscover just how funny, witty, and kind hearted she was. Her two granddaughters, Dana Smith and June Gardner, are also thankful to have had the opportunity to build a relationship with Dottie, known to her grandchildren as “Grammy”, that they will carry with them the rest of their lives. In Anacortes, Dottie also became a great-grandmother with the birth of Alister James Gardner on November 23rd, 2011.

Dottie loved all living creatures, and she often rescued spiders invading the family territory. She scooped them up with the utmost care and gently let them down outside. Her true love, however, was dogs. She also had a special place in her heart for cats, who seemed almost unnaturally drawn to her when she visited her daughter’s house. Dottie also always loved a good love story despite her distaste of opera, musicals, and western films.

Dottie spent 91 years on this earth giving of her heart and soul. She spent 71 years married to the love of her life, J.R.. She is survived by a legacy of three sons, one daughter, five grandchildren, and one great grandchild. All of whom are deeply touched by her spirit and will

carry it’s torch by honoring her life with theirs for the rest of their days.

The world is a better place because Dottie lived in it. She will be missed and never forgotten.