Dorothy Pryor

Mary Dorothy Nesbitt was born in Chester, PA on March 6, 1932, to Marie Nesbitt. Dorothy or “Dot” as she was lovingly referred to by her family was a bright and charming only child. She was raised in Kingstree, South Carolina, Chester, Pennsylvania, and Chicago, Illinois. She married her sweetheart, Karl Pryor, on July 5, 1952 in Chicago, Illinois. Together they raised four devoted children Vikki (William), Duane, deceased (Donna), Holli (Daryl, deceased), and Brock (Dawn) . She was immensely proud of her four grand-children Shelby, Karla, Daniel, and Barbara, and ten loving great-grandchildren from 5 to 21 years old. She is also survived by countless cousins, extended family, and friends.

For nearly 30 years, Dorothy served as a 4th grade teacher at Jefferson School and a Principal at Lincoln Elementary School in Chicago Heights, Illinois. An early feminist and civil rights advocate, Dorothy was a trailblazer who held ground-breaking jobs beginning in the early 1950’s and was often the only African-American woman in her role, as a long distance operator for Illinois Bell, executive assistant for Standard Oil, and writer for the Adlai Stevenson for President campaign. In 1969, Dorothy earned a Bachelor of Arts in elementary education at Pestalozzi Froebel Teachers College and later a Master’s Degree at Governors State University.

Considered both beautiful and smart by all who knew her, Dorothy loved to learn as much as she loved to teach. She spent countless hours baking cakes, cookies, and gourmet breads from scratch, and testing and perfecting savory recipes. An avid gardener, she proudly sewed seedlings for her summer garden of vegetables and flowers as well as cultivating perennial roses, peonies and other spring blooms in her cutting garden. Dorothy taught herself many skills and attended adult education programs to improve them including; knitting, sewing, calligraphy, painting, pottery, tarot reading, guitar, piano, golf, skating, yoga, square dance, tap dance, and belly dancing, to name just a few.

A person of strong principles, Dorothy expected a lot of herself and others. Teaching her children to be honest, fair, compassionate, self-sufficient, and kind were some of her most important contributions as a mother and educator. She loved all of her family and they loved her back.

Above all Dorothy was an avid reader and traveller with wanderlust. She traveled in her early years through books, trains, car trips, and her first flight was in 1971 to Denmark. A lover of the high seas and the road less travelled, she cruised on more than 110 sailings, flew on the Concorde and sailed the Queen Mary across the Atlantic; toured all of the US, Europe, Hawaii, Alaska, the Netherlands, Africa, India, Fiji, Scandinavia, the Mediterranean, Mexico, the Caribbean Islands, South America, Central America, and Canada. Dorothy now flies with angel wings; there is still much to see and she is watching over us now!