Doris Grace Seaton Halverson

Halverson, Doris Grace Seaton (93), was born Dec. 21, 1915 in Cameron, Missouri. She was the second of four daughters born to Andrew and Grace Seaton. She died of ovarian cancer on Oct. 16, 2009 in Arlington, Virginia. During the Great Depression, her family made their way to Southern California, where her father decided on the idea of "building a house on the back of a low bed truck," and, as a pioneer in the house trailer industry, he founded Masterbuilt Trailers. Much her father's daughter, Doris often worked by his side, developing skills she would later employ in providing for her household and caring for the many guests who visited from around the world. As a teenager, Doris came to know Jesus Christ. "While looking up at the stars, wondering whether or not I believed," she would recall, "God's Spirit descended, filling me with faith and peace." In the early 1940's, Doris graduated from the Muir School in Pasadena, California, to begin a successful career in hair fashion, working in beauty salons throughout Hollywood, Lake Tahoe and Palm Springs. While attending Hollywood First Presbyterian Church, she caught the attention of Dr. Henrietta Mears, Director of Christian Education, creator of Gospel Light Publications and Founder of the Forest Home Christian Conference Center. It was in Henrietta's office that Doris first met a young Richard C. (Dick) Halverson. Impressed with Doris' artistic talent and leadership abilities, Henrietta put her in charge of the Forest Home Dining Room. Coincidently, Dick Halverson was assigned as a conference manager and speaker during the same time that Doris was there. One day, as Dick walked up to the conference meeting hall, with Doris and her mother not far behind, Doris pointed to Dick and said to her Mom, "If I ever get married, that's the man I'm going to marry." Dick and Doris were married at Hollywood First Presbyterian Church on February 2, 1942. Doris believed that her job was to serve her husband and family as a homemaker. "Before marriage," she would often say, "the phone always rang for me. After marriage, it always rang for my husband." Yet, her service did not go unnoticed. Those who knew Dick and Doris recognized that without her strength and support, Dick would have never reached the prominence he achieved as an international pastor, speaker, writer and late Chaplain to the U.S. Senate. In her own right, Doris was known for her wisdom, honesty and fairness. Observers agreed that, "you always knew where Doris stood on any issue" and "she carried herself with modesty and dignity among people regardless of their walk of life." Before her death, Doris urged her children to "bury me with a private, family grave-side service." On October 19, she was laid to rest next to her husband at National Memorial Park Cemetery in Falls Church, Virginia. Her grave stone reads the scripture she often quoted, "We would see Jesus." Doris is survived by three children, Richard C. Jr. of Arlington, Virginia, Stephen of Fallbrook, California, and Deborah Halverson of Shepherdstown, West Virginia; nine grandchildren; five great grandchildren; and an elder sister, Edith Cheek of Irvine, California.