Dorothy “Dotty” Rabey Brantley, 87, passed away peacefully on July 15 after a brief stay for pneumonia at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her situation was complicated by advancing Alzheimer’s disease, which she had been battling since 2008.
At the time of her death, Dotty’s entire family was by her bedside at Well-Spring retirement community. Just minutes before, they had all gathered from across the country to tell her how much they loved her.
“It’s a miracle,” said Jack Brantley, Dotty’s husband for 64 years, after her passing. “It was extremely powerful. If that doesn’t give you faith in the Lord, then nothing will.”
A service, led by Reverend Sid Batts, will be held for Dotty on Thursday August 7 at 2pm in the Memorial Chapel at First Presbyterian Church, 617 North Elm Street in Greensboro. Her ashes will be interred in the church’s columbarium.
Dorothy Evelyn Rabey and her fraternal twin sister Betty were born in Charleston, South Carolina on February 15, 1927. She was the daughter of the late Duncan Wilkie Rabey, a painting contractor and historical renovation specialist in Savannah, Georgia, and the late Mary Webb Gooding Rabey, a homemaker who also held a master’s degree in mathematics from Winthrop College.
In the 1930s and early ‘40s, Dotty spent her childhood in Savannah playing the piano and singing with close to perfect pitch. She could skillfully harmonize, typically in the lower ranges. Dotty delighted in sailing Lightnings on the Savannah River. She also loved attending minor league baseball games in Savannah with her father, and in turn, this led to Dotty becoming a lifelong fan of the Atlanta Braves.
From 1945 to 1948, Dotty, along with her twin Betty, attended the Woman's College of the University of North Carolina. She majored in chemistry with a minor in piano. It was during this time that she met Jack R. Brantley, her future husband, on a blind date when he was a sophomore at UNC Chapel Hill.
Dotty and Jack were married June 16, 1951 at Hull Presbyterian in Savannah. They soon moved to New York where Jack worked as a salesman for Greensboro-based Cone Mills. This was the heyday of American musical theater and Dotty loved going to Broadway shows, including South Pacific, My Fair Lady, Guys and Dolls, and The Music Man.
This was also the time when Dotty and Jack began building their family, starting with Jack junior in 1953, fraternal twins Betsy and Alison in 1955, and Duncan in 1959.
In 1960, Dotty and Jack moved to Greensboro for three years, and then to Rutherfordton, N.C., where Jack began a 27-year career with Tanner, the dress manufacturer.
During this period in Western North Carolina, Dotty and Jack designed and built a house in the country near Rutherfordton. It had wonderful views of the Blue Ridge Mountains and was inspired by the home in which she grew up, the one her father had built on 11 East 49th Street in Savannah. Dotty sang in the Rutherfordton Presbyterian church choir every Sunday, excelled at needlepoint and making dresses for her twins, worked periodically with Rutherford Hospital, both as a lab technician and with the Women’s Auxiliary, was an avid tennis player, and each summer, herded up everyone for family trips to Lake Lure or to the beach. At the same time, she tended to numerous Springer Spaniels. Her favorite was Brandy, “the smartest dog I ever met.” Dotty was skilled at designing and making exquisite silver jewelry and often gave it to friends as gifts. A bit of Broadway also travelled from New York to Rutherfordton. Dotty constantly played records of her favorite shows, singing and dancing while she cooked another meal. Perhaps this is why three of her four children landed in the entertainment business.
Through it all, Dotty’s true focus remained on her marriage and her family. This was her proudest accomplishment. With grace, style and unconditional love, she taught her four children how to successfully maneuver through an increasingly complicated world. Even when facing a difficult problem or disciplining a child, Dotty always maintained a level-headed perspective, a twinkle in her eye and a playful sense of humor.
“Dotty was very sweet and very wise,” said Aurelia Stafford, a close friend and next door neighbor for more than 20 years in Rutherfordton. “That’s a very rare combination.”
Towards the end, Dotty still loved singing songs and hymns, especially with her twin daughters. Because music utilizes different areas of the brain, even the cruelty of Alzheimer’s couldn’t rob Dotty of her lifelong love for music.
Shortly after her remarkable passing, when the family was concluding their final bedside goodbyes, her daughter Alison brought it all back full circle: “Mom always did have an excellent sense of timing.”
In downtown Wilmington, N.C., near the Cape Fear River, there’s a statue that the Brantley children have long admired. Its inscription, written a century ago, could have been penned specifically for their mother. Borrowing, it says she “exemplified with dignity and simplicity, with gentle courtesy and Christian faith, the true heart” of what it means to be a Southern lady.
Dotty Brantley is survived by her husband Jack, 85; her children Jack R. Brantley, Jr. of Decatur, Georgia, Betsy Brantley of Orange, Virginia, Alison Brantley Friedson of Berkeley, California, and Duncan G. Brantley, of Venice, California; seven grandchildren and one great granddaughter; and her twin sister Betty Rabey Cole of Menlo Park, California; She was preceded in death by her brother, Col. Duncan Wilkie Rabey, Jr. USAF, retired.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you please consider making a memorial contribution in the name of Dorothy R. Brantley to one of the following organizations: 1) Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro, 2500 Summit Avenue, Greensboro, N.C. 27405 (www.hospicegso.org); or 2) for cutting edge research by Dr. Scott Small at the Taub Institute for Alzheimer’s Disease at Columbia University, contact
(https://giving.columbia.edu/giveonline/?schoolstyle=523)
Or for more information, please contact Alison Brantley (510-684-3104 or alison.brantley@gmail.com).
Online condolences may be sent to www.haneslineberryfuneralhomes.com.
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