Doris Perry

Doris Francis Pagitt Perry, age 84 of Temple, passed away July 28. Services for Mrs. Perry are scheduled for Wednesday, July 31 at 2:00 pm at the 1st United Methodist Church of Lovelady, Texas with burial to follow at Evergreen- Lovelady Cemetery.

Doris was born June 13, 1929 in Poynor, Texas to Pleasant Alonzo Pagitt and Betty Beatrice Lacy Pagitt. She was raised on a farm with three brothers and three sisters, attended LaPoynor High School and graduated at 16 years old. After graduating, she worked at a dime store in Athens while attending Henderson County Junior College. She moved from there to Dallas and attended business school and worked for W. A. McKinley Mortgage Loan Company. She met and later married Charles Ray Perry on March 14, 1953 at Bryan, Texas at the First Methodist Church. They lived in Dallas and a year later, they had Linda Lou Perry. A few months later, they moved to Houston where they lived for 26 years. In Houston, Doris was a housewife, mother, and a seamstress. She briefly worked at a pharmacy, a bank, and at John R. Harris Elementary. She attended Garden Villas Methodist Church for many years where she facilitated the flowers for the church sanctuary on Sunday and volunteered at the Methodist Hospital, as well as sewing operating instrument bags for the doctors. She and Charles moved to Temple in 1980 and lived there the rest of her life. She was also involved with First United Methodist Church of Temple, preparing communion for eighteen years, was a member of the Dawson Sunday School Class, and enjoyed visiting nursing homes which she did for twenty-five years. She was involved with Methodist Women at the local and district level. She was hostess to many Methodist Women’s Circle and Book Review Club Meetings. She became a Stephen Minister and sewed stoles for the Stephen Ministry. Doris was an avid walker for at least thirty years. She volunteered every summer to help Linda prepare her classroom for the next school year and made many treats for all her classes. She painted some and liked working with her hands doing arts and crafts. She loved to bake oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies and then deliver them to many church events and the local nursing homes. One of her joys was gardening. She had a green thumb and she grew and canned vegetables for many years. Doris also volunteered at the Temple Civic Theater and the CTLC.

Doris is preceded in death by her parents, three brothers, two sisters, and one grandson, Larren Lee Forshage.

Survivors include her husband of 60 years, Charles; a daughter, Linda Perry Forshage and husband Larry Louis Forshage of San Angelo; two grandchildren, Laurie Forshage-Hanus and husband Darryl of Bayou Vista, Texas; Landon Louis Forshage of College Station; and her sister, Betty Jean Pagitt Townley of Lafayette, Louisana.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Temple First United Methodist Church, Scott and White Hospice of Temple, Lovelady Methodist Church of Lovelady, Texas, Lovelady Evergreen Cemetery of Lovelady, Texas, or the Poyner Cemetery.

The family will be receiving friends and neighbors at a visitation at Crawford-Bowers Funeral Home of Temple from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, Tuesday evening, July 30.