Martha Ormond Doner

Martha "Betty" Ormond Doner

Martha "Betty" Ormond Doner, beloved mother, grandmother and friend passed away peacefully on Wednesday, June 4, 2008, at Hospice Atlanta.

She was born in Hickory, North Carolina on April 16, 1922. She grew up in North Carolina and Virginia and graduated from the University of Virginia School of Nursing in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 1944.

She met her husband, the love of her life, in Charlottesville in 1946. They married and had a 10 year "honeymoon" until he died in 1956. She devoted her entire life to raising their three children as she and their father had planned. Everyone who knew her loved her. She never had an unkind word to say to anyone. She loved to read; she loved talk radio, needlepoint, crossword puzzles, and being with family and friends. She retired from nursing at the University of Virginia Medical Center as manager in the surgery clinic in 1979 and remained in Charlottesville surrounded by friends until moving to Roswell, Georgia, in 2000 to be closer to family.

She is survived by her daughter, DeeDee Thompson and son-in-law, Bill, of Atlanta; granddaughter, Kimberly Hartselle and her husband, Bill; great-granddaughters, Lindsey and Virginia of Norcross; son, Jim Doner and daughter-in-law, Ann; grandchildren, Kevin and Elizabeth of Littleton Colorado; son, George Doner; grandsons, Chris and Blake of Largo, Florida; very special step-granddaughters, Tish Harner and her husband, Charlie, and their children, Jill, Suzanne and Melanie of Alpharetta, Georgia; Laura Higgins and husband, Doug, and children, Katie Soto and her husband, Miguel; great- great-grandson, Michael of Lawrenceville, Georgia; and great-grandson, Billy, of Lawrenceville, Georgia. She is also survived by her sister, Dorothy "Dot" Murrell of Midlothian, Virginia; and sister, Margaret and her husband, Dr. Richard Haines of Wilmington, North Carolina.

She will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery, where she will join her husband Major George Cleveland Doner.

Memorial services will be held 11 a.m. Monday, June 9, 2008, at Sandy Springs Chapel. The Reverend Scott Uzzel will officiate.

Memorial contributions may be made to Homestead Hospice, 3690 Holcombe Bridge Road, Suite 100, Norcross, GA 30092 or American Heart Association, 1101 Northchase Parkway, Suite 1, Marietta, GA 30067.

The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service at Sandy Springs Chapel, 136 Mt, Vernon Hwy. Sandy Springs.


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.