Dorothy Lee Naivar Nelson, age 83, died Sunday, October 11, 2015 in Austin, Texas. Visitation will be 11 a.m. October 20, 2015 at Sunset Funeral Home, 1701 Austin Highway in San Antonio, Texas with the memorial service following at noon. Dorothy Lee Naivar, youngest daughter of Albin Naivar and Anna Stepan, was born June 15, 1932 in Temple, Texas.
Dorothy was “daddy’s girl,” a dark-haired beauty with a vivacious personality and a quick mind. She was a third-generation Texan. When her sisters were young Albin and Annie only spoke Czech in the home, so the girls didn’t know English when they began going to school. It only took them a few months to learn the language, but her parents didn’t want Dorothy to have the same problem so they began talking English more at home. Thus, unlike her sisters, Dorothy could understand Czech but never learned to really speak it.
Dorothy was a precocious child. She starred in school plays, learned to play the violin and the small pump organ in their home, and graduated from Temple High School in 1949 at age 16. She won a statewide stenography contest, and went to work as a switchboard operator for the telephone company.
Dorothy married Herman C. Nelson, Jr. on December 15, 1951 in the living room of her parents’ home at 916 East Central Avenue in Temple. Herman was 24 years old, and Dorothy 19. The young couple lived in Temple until the summer of 1960, when Herman decided to move back to San Antonio to work at Samuels Glass Co. He and Dorothy bought a new house on Old Moss Road, and she quickly began making new friends and getting involved in community affairs.
First Dorothy began volunteering at her boys’ elementary school, where she met neighbors and joined their bridge club and bowling league. The family attended the newly-built St. Matthews Methodist Church on Bitters Road, and Dorothy became involved with the children there.
When the Methodist Hospital opened in San Antonio in 1963, Dorothy followed the lead of her mother-in-law and helped establish the Blue Bird Thrift Shop to raise funds for the new facility. She later continued her charity work by volunteering on Fridays at the San Antonio Conservation Society and running an escargot booth at its annual fund-raiser, A Night in Old San Antonio.
Above all else, Dorothy loved to be with her family. Christmas and Thanksgiving were very special occasions, with everyone gathering one holiday in San Antonio, the next in Temple, then at the Nelson ranch near New Braunfels, then at Arline’s house in Austin. Birthdays and anniversaries were always celebrated with big parties. And in between times, Dorothy and her sister Arline were constantly visiting back and forth.
Dorothy was preceded in death by her husband in 1984; her parents; infant brother Reuben Naivar; sister Arline Ward and her husband Dell Ward; and brother-in-law Joe Holtz.
Surviving are son Trey (Charla) Nelson and their daughters Rachel (Ben) Ragland, Anna (fiance Erik Little), and Vanessa (Chad) Cheff, all of Austin, and son David Lee (Cathy) Nelson of Midland and their children Jonathan (Erin) Nelson of Richardson, Brian (Aslinn) Nelson of Midland, Erin (Ryan) Rollins of Denton, and Heather (Logan) Smith of Lubbock; great-grandchildren Vanna, Jack, Jason, Conner, Eloise, Russell, Reagan, Elizabeth, and Tessa; sister Evelyn Holtz; niece Linda (Bruce) Plakke; and 5 great-nieces.
Pallbearers will be grandsons Jonathan and Brian Nelson; sons-in-law Ben Ragland, Chad Cheff, Ryan Rollins and Logan Smith; Erik Little and Dana Rowley.
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