By Staff
I was recently saddened when I picked up the paper and read where Dorothy Lee Armin passed away.
Dorothy Lee was my kindergarten teacher at the old Oak Street school in 1936.
Right away my memory went back to those early years of my life.
Dorothy is one of my teachers I will never forget.
I remember how in her room we used to have what was called quiet time (nap time), where we laid on little throw rugs on the floor before or after we had our graham crackers and milk.
Dorothy was not married when she was our teacher and lived in the big family home on Green Street with her elderly mother.
One time I recall she took all of her class in her Studebaker car to her home for a picnic in the big yard of her mother's place.
I don't remember how many trips she had to make to get us all there.
Over all these many years I've been in contact with Dorothy many times.
She has been to our house for a few visits and Peg and I (whom Dorothy really took a liking to) have been to her place many times.
For many years Dorothy drove her big green Lincoln car, but had to quit driving a few years ago.
She was so tiny she could hardly see over the dash.
Dorothy used to enjoy it when we would bring her the year's first asparagus (which she loved) or the first strawberries or a bunch of yellow daffodils from our back yard.
In the mail would come one of her little thank-you notes.
Always on her Christmas card she would write, I'm looking forward to your visits next year.
Dorothy had a remarkable memory and we would reminisce about her old classmates she had.
She had lots of stories to tell – some I'd best not repeat.
I could just mention a name and she would have a story to tell.
It amazed me to no end how much she could remember.
I only wish now that I'd had a tape recorder on some of our visits.
In her mind was a lot of Dowagiac history.
One time Peg and I were going north on M-51 out to our trailer at Pitcher Lake when, lo and behold, was Dorothy's big green Lincoln sitting in front of Bill Parrish's garage, where she had been involved in an accident.
We pulled over and she said, Oh! Charles, I'm so glad you stopped.
We took her and her two teacher lady friends back to her house as the wrecker pulled the old green Lincoln away.
Dorothy used to tell me how she liked my mother, which made me feel good.
She also enjoyed my articles and often called me about them.
I told her I planned some time to make a book of them, and I showed her what the cover would look like with a big red cardinal on it.
She said, why don't you call your book, "Dowagiac's Cardinal Charlie," and put this above the bird, and then on the bottom of the cover "Remembers."
If it works out and I do have a book, that is what it will be called.
Dorothy once showed us a bunch of old pictures.
One I remember was of her and her mother in their horse-drawn carriage with their gentleman driver.
Another was a picture of the early days of her house when it had a bigger porch that went way around the house.
As a kid, I can remember seeing the back part of her house cut away and moved to the next lot on West Street.
I think she told me it was moved by a Mr. Cauffman with his horses.
Among my memories of "Miss Lee," whom I have always remembered her as, are the pictures we have of her on our visits.
Something I still have which is now 70 years old is my first report card, a handwritten letter to Mrs. Gill telling how she enjoyed me in her group and how I did and how my next year in first grade will be a happy one.
Dorothy was such a prim little lady and the Grand Old City's last link to its grand old past has left us. She will be missed by myself and her many friends.