Dorothy Murray

Mrs. Dorothy Murray, widow of Joseph Murray, age 93 of Garden City died in the Lake Norden Care Center where she had resided for nearly two years. Private services will be held on Wednesday afternoon in the Furness Funeral Home Chapel at Clark. Burial will follow in the Rose Hill Cemetery at Clark. The Reverend Warren Rhodes will officiate. Visitation will also be private. She was born Dorothy Ardelle Spencer, the daughter of Harry and Minnie (Knecht) Spencer, on May 9, 1913 at Houghton, SD. She grew to adulthood in the Houghton and Columbia communities, graduating from Columbia High School in 1929 two weeks after her 16th birthday. She attended Aberdeen Normal for two years, obtaining her teaching certificate. She then taught in one-room schoolhouses in Marshall, Brown, Sully, Roberts, Codington, Carson and Clark Counties for a number of years. During World War II she lived in southern California where she was a genuine Rosie the Riveter, riveting the tips on airplane wings at a Lockheed plant. She later took a boat to Alaska and lived there for some time, working as a bookkeeper at an Army base, before returning to South Dakota to teach. On June 24, 1948 she was united in marriage to Joe Murray of Garden City at Pierre. The couple lived and farmed near Garden City. Mr. Murray died on June 27, 1989. She continued living on the farm with her son Roger until entering the care center August 11 of 2004. Grateful for having shared in her life are her children, Roger Murray of Garden City and Jo Ann Murray of Dallas, TX; two sister, Hazel Green of Vermillion and Marion Hinman of Omaha, Nebraska. She also leaves several nieces and nephews. Preceding her in death were her parents, husband and three brothers. Visitation will be for the family prior to services in the Furness Funeral Home Chapel. Arrangements are announced by the Furness Funeral Home in Clark where you can email a condolence to www.furnessfuneralhome.com