Dorothy Mae Fieldgrove

1927 - 2010

Dorothy Mae Fieldgrove 1927 - 2010 Dorothy passed away peacefully June 16th. She was born in Gowen, Oklahoma to Enmon and Nancy Jane Martin March 19,1927. In 1936 Dorothy and her family packed up all of their belongings and headed west as part of the great Dust Bowl Migration. They stopped in Mesa, Arizona where a neighbor of theirs had moved earlier. Jobs were available in Mesa so the family settled there. Dorothy moved with her Mother to Bakersfield in 1943. The second youngest of seven children raised by a single mother in the depths of the Great Depression. Dorothy, to her lifelong disappointment and lament, had to quit school to help the family. As a teenager Dorothy worked out at the old Minter Field Army Air Corps Base during World War II. After the war, she worked as a car hop at Bloomfields in East Bakersfield and at the Southern Pacific Railroad ticket office in the SP Depot on Sumner Street where she met Ray Fieldgrove a crew dispatcher for the railroad. They were married and due to the absence of home building during the war, lived briefly in the SP Housing on East Kentucky Street at the base of the old ice chutes. Soon they bought their first home and moved there with newborn son Gary with older son Doyle starting kindergarten. Always deeply involved in all of her boys' activities she served as PTA President at Casa Loma and Baker Elementary schools in the early fifties. In 1955 when she went back to work she took a job with the Bakersfield City Schools so she could be off with her boys holidays and summers, retiring eventually as Food Service Manager at Williams School. Summers were spent at the JBA diamonds and camping trips to Sequoia and Yosemite. She took summer with her but she left her love. A Christian in the true sense of the word, she was an active member of the Columbus Street Baptist Church for nearly 60 years serving as Sunday School Teacher, Sunday School Department Superintendent and President of the Women's Missionary Union for many years. She also greatly enjoyed her activities with Vacation Bible School as well as teaming with the Pastor to beat their opponents socks off playing dominos. Her deep faith sustained her throughout her life, as well as an indomitable strength of will that she displayed right to the very end. Always game for some fun, she loved roller skating in her youth, square dancing for years with her husband (as well as a fling with belly dancing!), and for a period of time enjoyed riding with her husband on motorcycle rides with friends. Her generosity and warmth towards those whose lives she touched was eclipsed only by unreserved love of family. Dorothy's family found it very hard to have to give her up and say goodbye. She will be missed terribly. But we grieve for ourselves; wherever she is today they can't believe their luck. Dorothy is preceded in death by husband, Ray; brothers, Otis Clyde Martin and Charles Martin; sisters, Novella Mable Kirk, Josie Louella Smiley, Evelyn Chose. She is survived by son, Doyle Cull (Janet) of Ojai; son, Gary Fieldgrove (Gayle) of Bakersfield; granddaughter, Bronwen Michels (Craig) of Ojai; grandson, Grant Fieldgrove (Julie) of Bakersfield; great grandson, McClane Fieldgrove; dear sister Flona Hefner of Sacramento; and numerous nieces and nephews who so enriched her life. The family would like to express its heartfelt appreciation and gratitude to Odyssey Hospice and the good people at Glenwood Gardens Clare Bridge who were professional, but also so very kind to Dorothy. Special thanks to Monica, Juana, Christina and Jessica. Dorothy will be laid to rest next to her husband Ray in the Garden of Peace in Hillcrest Memorial Park. Services private. "Death is not extinguishing the light, it is only putting out the lamp because the dawn has come." (Author Rabindranath Tagore) www.bakersfield.com/obits