Dorothy S. Frisbee, age 95, longtime resident of Upper Arlington, passed away Sunday, September 10, 2023 at Wesley Glen. Born at home in Adamsville, Ohio, in 1927, she would grow up to work as a school teacher in Thornville, Ohio, and then serve as a home demonstration agent in Clark County, helping women learn new cooking techniques using the latest technology, before becoming a homemaker herself – raising three children and numerous pets in a small house in the Columbus suburbs.
She made the newspapers early on in life after someone alerted the media that not only was Dorothy born on Christmas Day but so was her sister, Clare, a few years later. Their mother, Lolita Bowden Smith, had been born on Dec. 24, 1900.
The eldest of Lolita and Frank E. Smith’s three daughters, Dorothy graduated from Adamsville High School in 1946, just as droves of soldiers who had served in World War II were returning home and heading to Ohio State University. There were long lines everywhere on campus, she recalled. If you wanted to sign up for a class, you had to get there right at 8 a.m. or you wouldn’t get what you wanted.
Dorothy worked to pay for her college education with different jobs in the cafeteria, as well as one where she took the late night shift at the front desk in a dorm, making sure the nurses who often worked late would feel safe when they came in.
After graduating in 1950 with two bachelor’s degrees – one in education and one in home economics – she took a job teaching in Thornville, where she worked for a couple of years before joining the Agricultural Extension Service’s new program sending agents around the Springfield, Ohio area to help families stretch their budgets and improve their diets.
The home demonstration agent program was new enough that a journalist sat in on the job interviews.
Dorothy Smith got the job and, not long after, got asked out on a date by that journalist, Howard E. Frisbee, editor of the Miami Valley Farmer. Howard had also grown up in a family that farmed, but in New York state.
The couple married in June 1956 in Springfield. Not long after, when Howard was asked to interview for a job with the Cooperative Extension Service and the Department of Agriculture at Ohio State, the newlyweds would move to Upper Arlington. Their three children – one boy, two girls – arrived over the next few years.
Dorothy had grown up cooking on a coal stove, but as a home demonstration agent, she was encouraged to embrace the new push toward electric. When her apartment came without a stove, she bought a shiny, new electric model that she continued to use for decades. It was still plugging along into the 2020s.
A long-time member of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Upper Arlington, Dorothy served stints as a deacon and running the church nursery during worship services. Before the pandemic, she helped with signing up participants in monthly lunches and programs for seniors.
Dorothy always loved traveling. The couple took their children on regular camping trips and each summer would attach the family’s camper to the back of their station wagon and head out for adventures.
After Howard retired, they discovered the joys of frequent flier miles and managed to travel to places like Israel, Egypt, Italy, France, Spain, Germany, England, Scotland, Greece, Turkey and Australia.
In Puerto Rico, their penchant for stretching their dollars by staying in inexpensive hotels turned into an awkward moment. Howard got a few odd looks in the evening as he sat on the balcony reading the newspaper. And then, in the wee hours, when a manager started pounding on the hotel room door to tell them they’d only rented the room for half of the night, they realized they weren’t the usual type of patrons. They just paid for the rest of the night and added it to a pile of good travel stories to tell later.
Dorothy never went back to teaching, but she cherished her connections with other home economists, serving as a long-time member of the Columbus, Ohio Home Economists in Home & Community group that met monthly for years. She was also a member of the University Women’s Club.
Dorothy is predeceased by her husband, Howard, who died in 2003, and by her sister, Verna Morrison. She is survived by her sister, Clare Buchanan; a son, Alan Frisbee; two daughters, Marcia Smith (and Rich) and Teresa Lindeman (and Robert); one grandson, Tom Lindeman; three granddaughters, Elinor Lindeman, Elena Smith and Michaela Smith; and numerous nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and grand-nephews.
Family will receive friends from 1-3 P.M. Sunday, September 17, 2023 at SCHOEDINGER NORTHWEST, 1740 Zollinger Rd., where a funeral service will begin at 3 P.M. Sunday. Private family burial will be held. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Clintonville-Beechwold Community Resource Center's Family Services and Choice Food Pantry, at 3222 North High Street, Columbus, OH 43202
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