Doris Baxter Turner

1928 - 2019

Doris Baxter Turner

Memphis, TN

Doris Baxter Turner, loving wife, mother of two daughters, gifted decorator, and entrepreneur, has passed away peacefully at home at the age of 90.

The youngest of three sisters, Doris was born on June 18, 1928 in Van Buren, Arkansas, to Harriet and William Elijah Baxter and grew up in England, Arkansas. On February 19, 1950 she married Tom Rivers Turner. They made Memphis their home where Tom spent many years as an executive with Buckeye Cellulose and a highly regarded civic leader. While Doris raised their two young daughters, she dreamed of owning an interior decorating business.

Doris's love of the retail business began in childhood. On Christmas Eve, while her mother rang up last minute sales at her family's TG&Y Variety store, Doris could be found sleeping on the stack of tissue paper on a shelf under the cash register. Her parents recognized her talent for decorating when she was twelve and gave their precocious daughter the responsibility of choosing new furnishings for the family home.

In 1946, the day after being crowned Miss Irish at her England, Arkansas high school, she flew to New York City to attend the New York Institute of Photography. Friends introduced her to Georgia native Tom Turner. Their mutual attraction was instantaneous. It sparked a sixty-year marriage.

While her daughters, Terri and Lisa grew, Doris began her interior decorating career by working for a Memphis furniture store and an art gallery. In 1973 her dream came true when she opened Designer's Choice Interiors. By 2004 she had become a member of the American Society of Interior Design and grew her business into a full-scale interior decorating enterprise with twenty employees.

Doris's decorating talents were in such demand she often personally designed several large homes while running her complex business. She did it with style, grace and ease as with everything she did. Her generosity, light-hearted spirit, creativity, and famous intuition made working with her and for her a delight.

Doris loved to dance, she loved music, perfume, and beautiful things. A generous and compassionate person, she was known to do everything she could to help people find happiness and success.

Doris is now reunited with the love-of-her-life, Tom Turner, who passed away in 2010, along with her parents and her sisters, Elizabeth Nickla and Virginia Flatter. She is survived by her daughters Lisa Turner and Terri Panitz and Terri's five children: Daniel, April, Colin, Alyse, and Kelsey.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, January 26th from 10:30am until the time of the service at 11:30am at Wesleyan Hills Methodist Church, 390 S. Yates Road in Memphis.

In lieu of flowers, remembrance donations may be made to Wesleyan Hills Methodist Church where Tom and Doris were founding members.