Doris Madeline Hatcher Lawlis

Doris Madeline (Hatcher) Lawlis, 102, died Feb. 11, 2011 in Longview, WA. She was born Dec. 21, 1908 in Hill City, Kansas to Reese and Edna Hatcher. Their family grew many crops on the farm. "Kansas was a wheat state, but they raised other things, too. Like farmers do, they plant whatever they think is the best thing." Doris walked a mile and a half each way to attend a one-room country schoolhouse. She and her siblings found ways to entertain their young minds. "We didn't have all the things that kids have now growing up," Doris said. "We made our own fun a lot of the time, playing games together outdoors and playing at school. That was just our life, a lot of it was work." The farm and chores took up much of their time. One of the duties was herding the cows for milking. "Everything wasn't fenced to begin with, and she herded cows on the prairie where the grass was so tall she could sit down in it and go out of sight." Modern marvels made their way into the youngster's life, even though it wasn't her family who owned the luxuries. "I remember the first car that anyone owned in our neighborhood, " she said. "The people who bought the car went around to the people in the neighborhood, giving them rides in the car. That same family had the first radio in the neighborhood. They were a little better off, financially, than some of us." After she got out of school, Doris began paying attention to a certain young man, Ivan Lawlis. She had known him for years, but they went to different schools. The couple married in 1930, during the Great Depression. About the time, people were recovering from the economic disaster, dust storms attacked her childhood home. They were right in the center of what they called the Dust Bowl and pretty much lost everything. When they heard some desert lands were available for homesteading in Wyoming, the couple decided to try to start a home there. After the United States joined World War II in 1941, Doris and Ivan decided to move, this time to Washington, where work was plentiful. "There were jobs to get out on the coast, which we didn't have where we lived, " Doris Said. "We came to Washington and thought we would work through the winter and go back to Wyoming in the spring, but we decided not to go back." They move first to Sumner, WA, then Steilacoom. Ivan found work operating heavy equipment. They raised their 3 children, 2 sons; Gary Lawlis of Longview and Norman Lawlis of Puyallup, WA. They also had a daughter; Arlene, who died at the age of 26. Doris and Ivan later moved to Roy, WA, where they built a country home. That is where they were living when Ivan passed away in 1989. Doris stayed in Roy until 1999, when she moved to a senior apartment in Ilwaco. When her son, Gary moved to Longview, she decided to move also so she could be near them and was there when she passed away. She is survived by her sons; Norman and Gary and their wives, Bette and Fay, 4 Grandchildren; Deborah, Mike, Angela and Mark, and 7 Great Grandchildren. She was preceded in death, besides her husband and daughter, by an unborn granddaughter, Kim. Graveside service will be Wed. Feb. 16, 2011, 2:00PM at the Sumner City Cemetery, Sumner, Washington. Arrangements are by Powers Funeral Home, Sumner, WA