Dorothy Hall Di Mattia

Dorothy Maseria Hall Di Mattia was born March 4, 1932 in Cleburne Country, Alabama. She was 92 years old. She entered heaven on August 19, 2024. She worked her first job at 14 as a waitress at a bus stop in Heflin, AL and always laughed that she was so country she didn’t even know what a grilled cheese sandwich was until she worked there. She went to school for a time in a one room school house and did so well her teacher would have her teaching the younger grades. She excelled at whatever she did. She always had a great sense of humor. She was a cheerleader during high school but left school to get married. She married young and began her family with 2 daughters Shirley and Yvonne 14 months a part while her husband was in the Army. She expanded her rural country origins by traveling the world as a military wife and mother and making great friends where ever she went. Another daughter Vivian was born in California and then another daughter Janet born in France. She was a child of the Silent Generation born during the Great Depression as the last child of nine. She was raised with a single mother as her father had left the family before she was born. She told many stories with a smile on her face of growing up with her sisters and brothers but mostly stories of her sisters that were close to her in age. Getting water from a well, her and her sister Earlene getting mad at each other and throwing corn cobs at one another. Keeping an egg or two for herself from the hen house so she could get take it to the store and sell it for candy. Sneaking and getting a spoonful of chocolate powder from the kitchen her Momma used for chocolate pies. How exciting it was when the peddler came around with his cart. Going into town when little and just sitting on the curb watching all the cars go by. Getting an orange, nuts and a baby doll in her Christmas stocking from Santa at Christmas. Making their own brooms from straw and sweeping the yard clear of any grass and getting twigs and furring them out at the ends to make a toothbrush to use with baking soda. She learned to save and be thrifty from a sparse upbringing and military life. She was an excellent cook and baker and passed that love onto her children. She was an excellent seamstress making clothes, wedding and brides maid dresses for her daughters. She was a consummate gardener and could take a dead plant and bring it back to life. She had her own large garden she tended every day until she sold her house at the age of 88. She then had her own garden at both her daughter’s home where she lived in her last years. Her great joy was growing her own vegetables every year. While raising her children and being a military wife Dorothy always worked at different jobs helping earn a living for her family. She worked at the GE plant in Oxford Alabama during the 1950’s for a time and while at work met Ronald Regan and Clint Eastwood and got their autographs while they were touring the country becoming famous. She always said she wished she had kept their autographs. So do we Mom.

When her last daughter was in high school, she got a job at Fort McClellan and in a very short time became manager of the PX in which she worked. As well as a manager of a store at Anniston Army Depot in Bynum. She was an artist who cross stitched beautiful pictures which are treasured by her family as priceless. She did ceramics for years and became quite good at creating and painting beautiful pieces that she gave away as gifts or displayed in her home.

After she divorced, she built her own house and made a wonderful life for herself living next door to her daughter for a few years.

She met the love of her life in a most unusual way. She was a juror on an infamous trial in Anniston during the 1980’s. He was Arthur Di Mattia, the bailiff. They met, thought highly of each other then went on with their lives. She said he was such a nice man. Later they met again while she worked at the PX in Fort McClellan and he was shopping there. They went on a date and said she told herself as he walked back to his car after saying goodnight that she was going to marry that man. And she did on March 3, 1986. They spent 32 wonderful happy years together. They built a beautiful home on the lake in Pell City, AL and had a large group of friends they spent a many happy times with. She was an active member of The Lady of the Lake Catholic Church. She volunteered at the Love Pantry and at her church. She was an active environmentalist long before it was even a thing. She picked up litter along the roadways, tested the water for pollutants in the lake, recycled any and everything she possibly could to help save the earth for future generations.

In her later years she lived with her daughter Janet in Phoenix, AZ and her daughter Yvonne in Pell City, AL. She always loved interacting and being with her family and never turned down playing a board game. She was lethal at Chinese checkers and enjoyed winning almost every game. She loved her family and never tired of talking about her momma, her sisters and brothers growing up in Heflin, Alabama and how much her beloved Art made her life so happy and filled her heart everyday with love. She always said how lucky she was to have found him and how good he was to her every day. She has finally reached him again, now forever in his arms.

She was preceded in death by her dearly loved Arthur Angelo Di Mattia, her grandson Eric Bell, her mother Vesta Izella Warren Hall, her brothers and sisters, William Russel Hall, Margaret Hall Norton, Doc (Dorphus) Hall, Ellis Hall, Louise Hall Vaughn, Eva Hall Hayes, Earlene Hall Turner Kooken, & Fred Hall. She is survived by her four daughters Shirley Skeivelas, Yvonne Bell (Jimmy), Vivian Ausley (Joe), Janet Morrison-Gonzales (David), grandchildren Erika Skeivelas, Campbell Thames (Amber), Sara Nunn, Seth Eisner (Kelsey), Ethan Eisner (Whitney), David Gonzales Jr, Bill Gonzales, Stuart Jones and great grandchildren, Diana Grace Skeivelas, Kaylee Kneedham, Addison Grace Thames, Owen Sullivan-Eisner, Sophia Eisner, Benjamin Eisner. She also leaves behind many loved nieces and nephews and cousins. Services will be 10:30am Thursday, August 29, 2024 at Our Lady of the Lake Catholic Church. She will be buried at The Alabama National Cemetery in Montevallo, AL with her husband Arthur Di Mattia.