Dorothy Lee Tabor Edmunds died peacefully in her sleep at the age of 92. She was born December 15, 1917 in Freeman West Virginia near the town of Bramwell in the coal mining hills of southern West Virginia. Despite her parents having died while she was a teenager and the onset of the Great Depression, she graduated as Valedictorian of the Bramwell High School class of 1932.

She went on to work her way through college, was on the tennis team and also graduated as Valedictorian of the 1936 class at Concord college in Athens West Virginia. The following term, she began her elementary school teaching career in nearby Montcalm West Virginia.

She met her husband to be, Henry Lee Edmunds from Bluefield West Virginia, at a swimming party in 1939. They were married on July 4, 1940. They moved to Portland in 1943 with their son Henry Newton, who was born in 1942. Her husband began work in the Kaiser shipyards constructing ships for the war effort. Dorothy was honored later in 1943 to christen the USS Gage which after the war was used as a troop transport to return soldiers home to the US from Europe. By great coincidence, this was the same ship that brought her husband Henry back to the US.

After the war, the couple and son lived in Vanport, where Dorothy began to teach elementary school again. After the destruction of Vanport in the flood of 1947, they were taken in by their good friends Cullen and Lucille Baker and lived with them until they moved to north Portland. From there, Dorothy continued her illustrious teaching career at Boise grade school where she taught grades 1 and 3 until 1955. In that year the family moved to the Alameda district and Dorothy then taught third grade at Joseph Meek elementary school until her retirement in 1976. Many of her former students, even after their completion of high school, college or even graduate school, stayed in touch with her and often considered her their most influential teacher of all.

She was an active member of her school Parent Teachers’ Associations. She was honored by former students, their parents, her teaching colleagues, principals and administrators as Oregon’s Teacher of the Year in only the second year of the history of this award.

Throughout her life she was a devoted member of her local Methodist church. Her father and family had built the town Methodist church in Bramwell, which was always a source of inspiration and strength for her. In Portland, she was a member of the Beech Street and later the Fremont Methodist church. After moving to assisted living facilities, she maintained attendance at worship services and inspired all with her kind and charitable nature.

Dorothy is gratefully remembered as a second mother by many in her wide circle of friends and extended family. She was a constant source of encouragement and optimism to everyone she met. After the death of her husband Henry in 1990, at the age of 80 she was remarried to Daniel Graham in 1995. The couple lived at the Town Center Village where they were the leading couple on the dance floor, until Dan’s death in 2003.

By 2006, she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia and was moved to Encore Senior Village, where she became a favorite resident of many of the staff and fellow residents. She was transferred to the Five Star Adult Family Home in Vancouver, Washington in September of this year. She died peacefully in her sleep on October 13, two months shy of her 93rd birthday. She will always be a source of inspiration and joy to those who knew her.

The family requests that instead of flowers that donations in Dorothy's name be made to the "Elizabeth Bowen Jones Memorial United Methodist Church" - c/o Mr. James Shrader, treasurer - 3285 New Hope Road - Princeton, West Virginia 24740. Arrangements under the direction of Caldwell's, Hennessey, Goetsch & McGee Funeral Home, Portland, OR.