Dorothy Jean Johnson Keuthan

Obituary Condolences Gallery

The minute I heard you were no longer with us, my heart was filled with sadness.
Remembering you is easy-I do it often with thoughts of our many adventures.
My memories include:
studying together, sharing teaching techniques, weddings, your babies, parties, phone calls, visits, our adventures in Hawaii, and many more things to numerous to list. Our times together were productive and happy. We shared so much.
I hold you tightly in my heart and there you will remain until we meet again.
Miss you my dear friend,
Bettye Jane Roche and family
Our thoughts and prayers are with each of you at this difficult time.

Sorry for your loss. When I met your Mom I felt she was an amazing woman.

Having now taught 43 years, I recognize the life of a marvelous teacher well lived, she is still an inspiration!

My Mother was a teacher for 34 years in South Florida. She taught high school students and then taught 2nd, 3rd, and 4th grades. She had a lot of students over the years and she had students who grew up, had children, and then she had their children as her students.

Even though my Mother was only 5'2, she was very good at keeping discipline in her classroom. She was so good that when other teachers were having problems with their students they would ask her to come in. She would come in and flick the lights and the students would see her and they would be like 'Oh....' and there would be complete silence. When she talked, she was very no non-sense and students knew that she meant business and they needed to get to work!

When she first started teaching, she started substitute teaching at a high school. When the administration office gave her the teaching assignments, they said, Oh, and good luck! as if she was going to need it! When she was waiting for the classroom to open, the high school students were standing around her talking and wondering who the substitute teacher would be, without realizing that she was the teacher!

She said that they tried to tell her that the class got out early to go to lunch. She was wise to them and said, Let me see, we need this many minutes of class time, so that means we would need to come back by this time. The students said, Oh no, we don't come back. She said, Right! And they knew they were not getting out early!

When my Mother started substitute teaching at an elementary school, the principal came by and watched her teaching and then asked her to stop by. He said, I see you have control of your classroom. Would you like a full-time position?

My Mother always taught The Golden Rule to her students. She believed in the Golden Rule:Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Treat other people as you would want them to treat you. And she always taught her students to be respectful and address people as 'Sir' or 'Mam' or 'Mr.' or Mrs.' If everyone was taught the way my Mom taught people, the world would be a better place.

My mother was never one to impose on other people. She always tried to do everything herself without asking for help.

She worked over 40 hours per week to work her way through college.

When she was teaching, she took classes in the evening to get her Master's degree and to take all the coursework for a doctoral degree, while she was teaching full-time.

She had three rental properties. Whenever a renter moved out, she would go in there and fix everything herself to fix the property up for another renter.

If something needed to be done at her house, she would try to do it herself. Right before she sold her house in South Florida to move to Nevada, one more hurricane came through shortly before she was scheduled to go to closing. She went outside herself and picked up all the branches and debris, and fixed the fence and fixed the sprinkler system.

I had neighbors both from South Florida and from Nevada tell me that they would see her walking to the bus stop and if they asked her, she would say, I take the bus to here, then walk to here. She would just figure out a way to get to whereever she was going without asking anyone for a ride. Neighbors from both South Florida and Nevada told me they couldn't believe she would do all of that to get somewhere and said they offered to give her a ride whenever she needed a ride.

I enjoyed talking to my Mom's friends. One of her friends said, She was a lovely lady. She was stern, a go-getter; she didn't take any non-sense all the things you would expect from a good teacher!

Another one of my Mom's friends said that my Mother inspired her to overcome obstacles and get the classes she needed to get her degree. And she let me know that she had tried to call my Mother to let my Mom know that she had finished her degree in microbiology and had gotten a good job in lab administration making $40/hr. She said she had tried to call my Mother and thank her, because my Mother had given her inspiration and had told her to overcome obstacles.

When I talked to that person, inspiration came back to me. Inspiration came from my Mom to her and back to me!

My Mother brought out the best in people, because she let you know that she expected the best from you and expected you to do the right thing. She brought out the best in a lot of people.

She was also an active citizen of the communities where she lived.

She went down to the offices for the City of Miami Springs and talked to them about the speeding on her street. The next weekend, she looked, and there was a police car at the corner near her house looking for speeders.

She even tried to do something about the golf balls from the golf course that were hitting houses. She contacted 13invetigates, ktnv and they came out and interviewed her. They had the reporting of the story on the news web site.

She certainly kept informed and she certainly had her opinion on issues. And she was very good at trying to explain her point of view on issues.

One time the Secretary of Education sat next to her on the airplane; I know he got an earfull!

My Mom
She was a wonderful Mother, a wonderful teacher, and a wonderful citizen of the communities where she lived.