Dora Lee Berry

Dora Lee Berry died at Brewster Place on May 8, 2025. She was born on November 27, 1932, in Topeka, Kansas, to the union of Franklin James Howey and Edith Elvera Beckley Howey. She lived briefly in The Dalles, Oregon, where her father worked aboard a ferry on the Columbia River. Upon her return to Kansas, she lived in Highland Park where she attended grade school. Being too old to enlist at the outbreak of World War II and wanting to help the war effort, her father decided to produce food and moved his family to a farm in Burlingame Township in Osage County.
Dora Lee attended the nearby one-room Sharon School. She graduated from junior high school in Falcon, Colorado, where her father and uncle operated a sawmill in the Black Forest. After returning to Kansas, she attended Harveyville High School. She graduated salutatorian of the class of 1951. While in high school, she did cafeteria bookkeeping to pay for her school lunches and worked at the drug store as a soda-jerk. Local banker C. H. Houseworth and teacher Marceline Zabel wrote letters of recommendation helping her obtain a scholarship to attend Stormont-Vail School of Nursing. She was in the second graduating class in 1954. Nursing students received practical training doing hospital work. During the 1952 polio epidemic she was required to work on the polio ward among patients in iron lungs. Nursing students were not allowed to wear masks to avoid scaring pediatric patients. One Red Cross nurse died from bulbar polio. After graduation she worked for Stormont Vail Hospital, ten years of which she was second-shift emergency room charge nurse. She was on-duty during the night the of June 8, 1966, tornado. In 1969, she started working for Pediatrics, P.A., providing newborn care instruction. In 1978, she joined Hallmark Cards as the occupational health nurse for the Topeka plant. She was an officer and board member of the Stormont-Vail School of Nursing alumni association for many years and organized many of the annual reunions.
Dora Lee competed in barrel riding and enjoyed water and snow skiing. She enjoyed traveling and went to every state except Alaska. She traveled to Canada, Germany, England, Scotland, and Wales on multiple occasions. For many years, she lived in and near Silver Lake and enjoyed gardening. She was a longtime member of Faith Lutheran Church in Topeka and volunteered for years as a parish nurse.
On August 3, 1953, she married Clayton William Berry at Loman Hill Methodist Church. He died March 10, 1999. Dora Lee was preceded in death by her parents and a brother, Ervie E. Howey. She is survived by a son and daughter-in-law, Brett W. Berry and Sarah J. Loquist-Berry; and a brother, Larry W. Howey, all of Topeka.
Visitation will be Tuesday, May 20, 2025, at 1 p.m. The Nightingale Service will be at 1:45 p.m. with funeral service to follow at 2 p.m. at Faith Lutheran Church, 1716 SW Gage Blvd., Topeka KS 66604. Burial will follow in Harveyville Cemetery.
Dora Lee's funeral service will be live-streamed on the funeral home's Facebook page, you can follow this link https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063672125244
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be sent to American Cancer Society, in care of Kevin Brennan Family Funeral Home, 2801 SW Urish Road, Topeka KS 66614
Condolences may be sent online to www.kevinbrennanfamily.com.