Doris D. Elliott

Doris D. Elliott (ne Doris Virginia Dunkel), age 90, of Edmonds, Washington, passed away on April 19, 2009, at Stevens Hospital, with her loving family by her side. Born on a farm in Clark County, Ohio, December 23, 1918, to Gladdys and Howard Dunkel, she grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio, attending Western Hills High School and then Western College for Women (now Miami University in Oxford, Ohio) and the University of Cincinnati, and majoring in English literature.  Her only sibling, a brother born in 1926 with Down’s Syndrome, died in 1947.

In 1941, she married Roger Hancock Elliott, a mechanical engineer from Purdue and they moved to College Station, Texas, where he taught a year at Texas A&M.  Doris became the first woman on the all-male campus to ever perform skits on their local radio station, WTAW.  From College Station, she and Roger moved to Kansas City, where he took a job with Bendix Aviation Corporation and Doris assumed the role of raising their three children, Roger, Jr., Barbara (Machin) and Ken.

During the twenty-seven years residing in Kansas City, first in Mission, Kansas and then Overland Park, Kansas, Doris became deeply involved in politics, chairing the Women’s Republican Party of Northeast Johnson County in the 1960’s.  She also worked for a short time as the Executive Secretary for the Prairie Village, Kansas, Shopping Center.

In 1970, Bendix transferred Roger to Sedro Woolley, Washington, and they built a home overlooking Puget Sound on Samish Island.  Doris loved living in the semi-wilderness despite her urban upbringing and hated to leave in 1974, after Roger suffered a major stroke.  They first moved to Edmonds to be closer to medical care, but then moved to Dayton, Ohio, to be closer to family, and from there to Corpus Christi, Texas to be near her oldest son, Roger Jr.  After her husband’s death in 1979, she moved back to the Northwest, which she had come to love, and settled in Edmonds for the remainder of her life.

Next to her children and grandchildren, Doris’ second love was to travel, which she did extensively.  She could proudly boast of having visited 46 of the 50 states, pre-Castor Cuba and Mexico.  She cruised to Alaska while Ken, her youngest, lived there and made three trips to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates while Roger Jr., her oldest, lived there.  On one of her journeys, she visited Egypt, cruised down the Nile and went wadi bashing in Oman.  She saw the Hawaiian Island of Oahu when Ken was married there and toured Peru, including Cuzco and Machu Pichuu, when Roger Jr. lived there.

Doris’ third love was her dogs, all dachshunds except for her last companion, Nacho, a long-haired chihuahua she inherited from a friend.  She had the ability to calm and train even the most difficult breeds. 

Doris is survived by two of her three children, Ken (Elena) and Barbara (Peter Andrew Mechin), five grandchildren, Michael Elliott (Nicki), Scott Elliott, Rhonda Elliott, Venice Harris (John) and one great grandson, Cole Harris.  A memorial service will be held at Maplewood Presbyterian.  There will be no visitation.  The family requests that memorial tributes be made to the charity of the donor’s choice.