Dorothea was born in 1922, the youngest of seven children in Rockland, Massachusetts, to Lillian and Howard Pease. She grew up at the Graham School in Hastings on-Hudson and at The Sheltering Arms in New York City. Dot learned independence, the value of family and the art of mischief during these years.
Her earliest adult years were spent working in NYC, enjoying New York’s Big Band music on the weekends. She moved with her mother to Needham, Massachusetts, to live with her brother Bill. She studied fashion illustration at the New England School of Art in Boston and worked at MIT in the Engineering Department Office. Her wartime pen pal, John, home from the Army, stopped by to take her out for coffee which led to their marriage in 1948.
The birth of five children in six years opened a new chapter in her life as mother of an active family. John’s work took the family from Massachusetts to Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and Michigan. As her children started their college years, so did Dorothea. While working as a full-time professional assistant in an insurance office, she earned an associate degree in hotel management. As her children married, she joyfully embraced her daughters-inlaw and sons-in-law as her own sons and daughters. In 1976, Dorothea and John retired to a new career as owners and managers of the Southwinds Motel at the Delaware shore. There they helped to co-found the new Town of Dewey Beach.
Retiring once again in 1999, to live in Kennebunk, and then Topsham and Portland, Maine, Dorothea and John welcomed many happy visits from children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Dorothea will be remembered by her family and friends for the love and kindness she gave us in many beautiful, everyday ways. We’ll cherish her artistic eye, her poetry and writing, her newsy correspondence, her celebration of holidays, birthdays and ordinary days, her gentle presence and help with our newborns, her delight in her grandchildren, her heart to heart chats, her quick sense of humor and mirth, her quiet, constant faith, and her joy in being with family right through her final days.
Dorothea was predeceased by her beloved husband, John in 2014. Her mother Lillian, sisters Florence, Priscilla, Harriet, and Evelyn, and her brother Howard also predeceased Dorothea.
She is survived by her son Jack and wife Kiki of Plymouth, MI, son Paul and wife June of Cape Elizabeth, ME, daughter Louise Kmosko and husband Andy of Ship Bottom, NJ, daughter Susan Sempere and husband Thom of Eugene, OR and son Scott of Detroit, MI, her brother William of Weston, MA, as well as 11 grandchildren and eight greatgrandchildren and many nieces and nephews. Dorothea will be greatly missed, but will endure in the hearts of her many family and friends.
A private family memorial celebration will be held in Plymouth, Michigan. Condolences may be sent to Jack Farrow at 275 N. Harvey St., Plymouth, MI 48170 or by email to jackfarrow@aol.com.
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