Dorothy was born into a rural farm home in the small community of Fairdealing, Ripley County, Missouri on July 16, 1923. While earning her registered nursing degree in Memphis, she met and married a young pharmacist, Vernon C. (Tommy) Thompson, as he faced deployment for WWII. When Tommy received his Army discharge, they settled in Gadsden, which had been one of the towns along his pharmaceutical-sales route. Dorothy put her nursing skills to work at the Etowah County Health Department. A few years after the first-two of her four children came along, she devoted herself to being a full-time mom. She attended church regularly at the East Gadsden Methodist Church with her family and played the piano for her Sunday School class. Once all the kids had their own families, she went back to work as a nurse at CED Mental Health Center. She enjoyed gardening, as well as square-dancing, playing bridge, and traveling with Tommy, until he passed in 1992. Later, Dorothy took-up horse-back riding for a time, and she continued to enjoy traveling and a ladies’ bridge club; she also took up clog-dancing with a group who performed at nursing homes and other local venues. In late 2012 she moved from Gadsden into an assisted living home in Louisville, and then into the Episcopal Church Home for nursing-home care, four years later.
Dorothy is survived by her children Carey Thompson (Beverly), Rebecca Hall (Mrs. Lary), William Thompson (Cathy), and Scott Thompson. She is survived by her nephew, Philip Bollheimer, and nieces Beverly Dismuke and Ann Gray. She is survived by eleven grandchildren and ten great-grandchildren.
She was predeceased by her husband, Vernon C. Thompson, her parents, Elijah and Lily McMillan, her brother, Robert McMillan , her sisters, Delaretta Bollheimer and Amybelle Gray, and her nephew, Ronald Earl Gray.
There will be a grave-side service at 2:00 P.M. on Monday, September 21, 2020 at Crestwood Cemetery. Dorothy will be buried beside her late husband. Visitation will be private at 12:00 P.M. at Collier-Butler funeral home in Gadsden, Alabama, prior to the above service. In lieu of flowers, make please make a donation to your own church or favorite charity in Dorothy Thompson’s name.
What follows is a social media tribute from one of Dorothy’s Granddaughters, Grace Shirk: “My grandmother was born in the early 20s, lived through the Great Depression, became a nurse, saw her husband off as he went to be a medic in Europe during WWII, had a child contract polio, raised children who went on to become engineers, pharmacists, and West Point officers. She passed away this morning at the age of 97 after a very full life. I am honored to be her granddaughter and proud to carry on her legacy as a nurse and as a mother. Rest in peace, Grandma!”
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