Dorothy "Dot" Hostetler

Dorothy Taylor:
March 9, 1931 – November 17, 2024
Dorothy, or "Dot" as she liked to be called, was born to Edward and Wilhemina ("Minnie") Taylor on March 9, 1931. She lived with her parents and siblings in a modest row house on a crowded, narrow cobblestone street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She didn't seem to like talking much about her years prior to high school graduation, so little is known by her children of her early history, but we do know she graduated from Wasthaum Vocational High School in 1948, where she excelled in typing, handwriting, and bookkeeping. These were skills that she continued to excel in her whole life.
Not long after graduating high school, she met her future husband, Donald Hostetler. They met one evening at a roller rink in Philadelphia, where Don was out on the town on leave from the Navy. Dot fell on the roller rink floor and Don came to her rescue by helping her up. The rest is history. They fell in love and married December 1, 1951 at Emmanuel Reformed Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.
Dot was working for a Cadillac Dealership as an administrative assistant in Philadelphia and eventually left that job to move to Bedford, Massachusetts to be close to Don while he finished his appointment in the Navy.
In July of 1952, Don was discharged from the Navy, and the couple decided to move to Don's hometown of Lebanon, Oregon. Dot had never been to the West Coast and was sure she was heading into the wild, wild west, something similar to a John Wayne movie, but apparently, she must have been up for the adventure.
It wasn't long before they decided to turn Don's naval electronics experience into a career, which led to employment opportunities in Eugene, where they built a home and started their family. The search for a better job continued with a tour through the southwest including Tucumcari, New Mexico and Goshen, California as Don worked in communications for the railroad. With each new location Don was assigned to, Dot followed with a young family in tow. They tired of life on the move and returned to their home in Eugene as their kids became old enough for school, before ultimately settling in Corvallis in August 1966. Corvallis would remain their home for nearly 50 years, where they watched their family grow, worked, participated in the community, and enjoyed retirement.
Dot was a wife, mother, and homemaker. She and Don raised four children: Gary, Jeff, Tim, and Terri.. Dot fostered a sense of closeness amongst the children and always encouraged family activities, whether it be a TV night together watching Flipper or Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom, a Sunday afternoon of card games such as Cribbage, Pinochle, or Canasta, or time spent together crafting things to play with. She was the ultimate recycler. She was masterful in using common household items, such as paper tubes, cardboard boxes, ice cream containers and such to create a make-believe world for her children and grandchildren.
Summer vacations with the kids were usually tent camping trips to Suttle Lake. Honestly, Dot may not have liked the inconveniences of no indoor plumbing, always having a flat air mattress in the morning, cooking out of a cooler and on a camp stove for six people, or the mess of twigs and dirt constantly being dragged into the tent with dirty shoes, but what she did love about those vacations was the family being together.
Later, after the children were young adults, Dot and Don began to rediscover things to do together as a couple for fun. They decided to purchase a motorhome. Dot seemed to enjoy this upgraded style of camping and they enjoyed taking trips together. Eventually they joined an RV club, the Roaming Antlers, where they travelled throughout the Northwest and shared their passion for camping and being in the woods with their club friends. Dot volunteered as the club secretary for a few years.
They also began to take ballroom dancing classes through their local Elks Lodge. In no time at all they were the couple to watch on the dance floor. They seemed to just float across the floor. They spent many weekend date nights dancing the night away.
Dot held a few secretarial or administrative jobs throughout her life, volunteered her time and talents for a few organizations and learned the art of court stenography, but mainly she focused her time raising their four children and enjoying her six grandchildren (Eric Hostetler, Carl Hostetler, Matthew Watkins, Genna (Watkins) Stern, Brooke Hostetler, and Devyn Hostetler). She recently became a great grandmother to three great grandchildren (Arlen Hostetler, Adriana Hostetler, and Jackson Stern), two of which were born just prior to her passing and unfortunately had not had the opportunity to meet in person yet.
If you knew Dot, you'd know that she had many interests and talents that fostered her creative side. She was quite talented at sewing. She taught herself how to alter clothing patterns and clothes, sewed clothing for the family, baby blankets, stuffed animals, Halloween costumes and created incredible children's activity books. When Dot's youngest children were in middle school, she became a 4-H leader for sewing, and shared her sewing talents with Tim and Terri and three or four other middle-school-aged children. Most of the 4-H group members learned enough from Dot to be awarded Blue and/or Championship ribbons at the State Fair. She also led a special sewing class for the Carden Academy, where Tim's children attended school. The students in the classrooms made their own stuffed bear.
Dot also took on learning to upholster furniture. She upholstered couches and chairs, and it seemed she could fix just about anything that was made out of fabric.
She found knitting and crocheting to be another creative outlet. She knitted several different styles of afghans and gave them to family members as gifts. You could always find a warm and cozy afghan on the back of the couch or a chair at her home. The joke was that she knitted in some sleeping dust because soon after being under one you were asleep.
One of her favorite times of year was Christmas. She loved to decorate for this holiday. So, her crocheting projects were snowflakes made of crochet thread. She crocheted over 100 different patterns. Her Christmas tree and often her windows would be covered with her handmade snowflakes. She was also known to have included one with each Christmas card she sent out to family and friends. Under the family Christmas tree, when the children were young, she included a train set. The track was mounted on plywood, and she taught her kids to embellish the board with houses, cars, a train station, people, light poles, trees and even made roads out of coffee grounds.
In January 2020, Dot lost the love of her life, Don, to Parkinson's. She bravely lived at home alone for a few more years, but eventually had to move to the VA home in Lebanon when she was losing her mobility. Her favorite activities there were reading books, attending music concerts, and playing Bingo. Dot seemed to especially enjoy Bingo because she often seemed to win.
Dot is survived by her four children, six grandchildren, and three great grandchildren.