Dorothy Craig

Dorothy Marie Burgess Craig was born on April 20, 1916, in Dallas, Texas, to Jules Allen Burgess and Annie Marie Keller Burgess. She died on May 16, 2011, in Austin, Texas, at the age of 95, after a long and successful life of serving others and tending to the two great passions of her life: her family and her church.

Dorothy was raised in Dallas and graduated from Crozier Tech High School. On June 18, 1938, she married Thomas Edward Craig of Waxahachie, Texas, in a ceremony at her grandmother’s Dallas home. Dorothy and Tommie met when they both worked in downtown Dallas -- Dorothy at the Leader Candy Company and Tommie at the movie theater next door. After their wedding, Dorothy and Tommie moved to Austin to begin their 45-year marriage. It was in Austin that they raised their two sons, Tommie Allen (1940) and Jimmie Wayne (1946). Since moving from Dallas, Dorothy spent most of the next 73 years at home in South Austin, making a tremendous impression on her community through the boys’ schools -- Travis Heights Elementary, Fulmore Junior High, and William B. Travis High School –- and through her 65-year commitment to Christ Lutheran Church.

Dorothy’s professional life included 30 years at the Texas PTA, service to two pastors as secretary at University Baptist Church, and a brief stint in the Office of Accounting at The University of Texas.

Among a host of other jobs, she served her community as a Cub Scout Den Mother and a South Austin Lions Little League volunteer. And she spent many summers as a manager at Stacy Park.

In 1946 Dorothy worked with a small group of South Austin Lutherans to found the first Missouri Synod congregation south of the river. She spent the rest of her years working tirelessly in numerous positions supporting Christ Lutheran.

Dorothy is preceded in death by her parents, Annie and Allen Burgess, husband Tommie, brother Richard Burgess and wife Ruth, brother Ralph Burgess and wife Jane, sister Florence Calhoun and husband Dick, daughter-in-law Gail Craig, and brother-in-law William “Scooter” Craig.

She is survived by her son, Tommie Allen Craig of Austin and grandson Kevin, wife Barbara, and great-grandson Thomas of Austin, and grandson Shawn, wife Lisa, and great-granddaughters Andrea, Emily, and Trinity of Del Rio, Texas; son Jimmie Wayne Craig and his wife Jennifer, and granddaughter Cassandra of Austin; sister Pauline Johnson of Carrollton, Texas; sister-in-law Mary Craig of Bryan, Texas; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Visitation is Thursday, May 19, from 6-8 pm at Weed Corley Fish 2620 South Congress Ave. The funeral service will be held at 11:30 am on Friday, May 20, at Christ Lutheran, 300 E. Monroe, Austin, Texas. Interment will follow at Forest Oaks Cemetery. Memorials can be directed to Christ Lutheran Church.