Dorothy Gray

Dorothy Vivienne (Galbraith) Gray was born in Galloway, Missouri on April 23, 1914, the third child of Stephen Logan and Vida Mae (Lindborg) Galbraith. She attended Central High School. Due to the scarcity of jobs in this area, her family helped her to relocate to Washington, D. C. in 1938, where she worked for the Labor Department in the Roosevelt Administration. Her boss was Frances Perkins, the first woman in a Presidential cabinet. In Washington, she met Charles Gray from Bowling Green, Kentucky who worked for the Treasury Department. After a courtship that included every imaginable historical site in Washington, D. C., Virginia, and Maryland, Charles and Dorothy were married February 22, 1940. They moved to Kentucky. Charles joined the Army Air Corps after the Pearl Harbor attack, and Dorothy moved back to Springfield and worked at O'Reilly Field.

After the war, the Grays moved to Kentucky and later to East Tennessee where Charles was an ATF agent. In 1966, they moved back to Springfield. Dorothy then went to work for the Social Security Administration where she worked until her retirement. She and Charles were able to do some traveling before Charles's death in 1979. Dorothy then traveled with friends and family. She always said she had visited only forty-eight states�Alaska was her favorite trip. She somehow missed Minnesota and Hawaii. The year she planned to go to Hawaii, she went instead to Ireland, Wales, England, and Scotland, her family's long ago home.

Dorothy and Charles were long-time members of St. Agnes Cathedral parish, though for several years, they were members of Holy Trinity. Dorothy moved back into the St. Agnes parish.

She is survived by her children and their spouses Charlie and Jennifer, Gary, Norma and Robert Thies, and Stephen and Susanne, her brother Stephen Galbraith, six grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, beloved nieces and nephews.

Funeral Mass will be at 11:00 a.m. Monday, April 28, 2008 in Mercy Villa with Father Mike McDevitt celebrant. Burial will be in Springfield National Cemetery at 1 p.m. on Monday under the care of Herman H. Lohmeyer Funeral Home, 500 E. Walnut.

Visitation will be from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday in the funeral home. There will be an additional visitation Monday from 10 to 11 a.m. in Mercy Villa.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to St. Agnes Cathedral, 533 S. Jefferson Springfield, MO 65806

Online condolences can be shared at www.hhlohmeyer.com.