Just after 4 decades of service to grieving households and loved kinds, the initially girl of Maryville’s Dotson Funeral Residence, Jeweldene Williamson Dotson, died at 84 on Aug. 18.
In accordance to her son Brent Dotson, she and her spouse opened the funeral residence as a family legacy, to be passed down by means of generations and to provide households in the group.
She was shy and quiet, but personable and never ever forgot a confront. Dotson said. “She served other individuals as part of her contacting,” he claimed, incorporating that he thinks she was properly in good shape for the career due to the fact she usually place him, his brother and her spouse initially, and by no means asked for anything in return.
“She valued her group for the reason that they weren’t just neighbors,” he mentioned. “They have been mates, persons who grew to become extended loved ones to ours.”
She place others’ demands in advance of her possess, from instructing her son at house in advance of he started out quality university, to guarantee he was at the very same stage as the other initial graders, to sitting down with and comforting families.
Right before opening the funeral household alongside one another in 1979, Jeweldene and her husband satisfied when they had been each teachers in Pike County, Kentucky. Afterward, they taught together in Maryland, Florida and Tennessee.
Her sister-in-law, Gail Emerson, had her as a property economics instructor, and stated she and the other students in the course listened to her mainly because it was obvious that she understood what she was conversing about.
Emerson described her as a “classy lady,” styling shorter hair, earrings and jewelry. She wore gored skirts, which were the classy fashion — very long and unfastened, occasionally straight and in some cases ruffled, with marginally inched high-heels.
Together with sowing up all the holes in her sons’ socks, she produced most of her outfits from procured styles and cloth, retained a yard comprehensive of tomatoes, potatoes and peppers, to identify a few, and appreciated singing old audio and gospel.
Dotson reported she cooked excellent and healthier foods, but her desserts had been his favorite. Her pineapple cake was the to start with he named, adopted by the story of a cousin’s blue-painted experience, who imagined her blueberry dessert was tasty.
“She was a symbol of a sensitive but sturdy, traditional female,” Dotson claimed. “Someone who was faithful and faithful to her spouse and family who worked really hard and was often there to hear and help other folks.”
As she aged and her mom and dad, siblings, and partner of 58 decades died, Dotson stated he was reversed into the function of caregiver, and the previous 5 decades he put in with her are some of his happiest recollections of his mom.
“Being a caregiver is tricky,” he mentioned. “It is demanding, and a ton of people might not recognize that. But it is a genuine honor and a privilege to be ready to witness and be section of the final yrs of her lifetime. And I wouldn’t trade that for something.”
