Dottie Dorchester

Dottie Dorchester, 85 of Beaumont passed away Friday, November 20, 2009 in Port Arthur.
A memorial service will be at 10:00 a.m., Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Beaumont. Entombment will follow at the church columbarium.
Dottie was born July 27, 1924 in Yonkers, NY to Harold and Vera Courtney Robinson. She lived a colorful life as a young career woman in New York City, often crossing paths with the rich and famous.
As a teenager, she loved Frank Sinatra and got to see him sing in New York City. "He was as skinny as the microphone he sang into," she remembered. "He was just like a stick."
Shortly after she graduated from high school in 1940, Dottie got her first job with Abercrombie & Fitch on Madison Avenue in New York City. "It was the sporting goods and fashion store of the rich and famous," she said. Dottie remembered waiting on the Duchess of Windsor several times while the Duke was downstairs buying hunting and fishing equipment.
At 18, Dottie got her dream job working in public relations with Nelson Rockefeller. He once invited her to join him as he treated General Charles de Gaulle to lunch. "He was very tall, polished, and friendly," she once said.
In 1944, she married a serviceman from Texas, Ernest Dean Dorchester III, who brought her to Southeast Texas where they raised their family. She loved to garden and landscape and became a member of the Mary Howell Garden Club and was also a member of the St. Hilda's Guild at St. Mark's Episcopal Church.
She is preceded in death by her husband of 60 years, Ernest Dean Dorchester III and her parents.
Those left to cherish her memory are her daughter, Carol Lee Palmer and husband Kim; son, Ernest Dean Dorchester IV and wife Nancy "Diane"; two grandchildren, Heather Perez and Christine Palmer and two great grandchildren. She is also survived by her sister-in-law, cousins and several other family members.