June Dolman Chase

June Dolman Chase passed into the hands of God on February 24, 2013. June Corrine was born July 5, 1921 in McAlester, OK to Hawley A. and Corrine Patterson Harrison. The family lived in St. Louis, MO until 1925 when they moved to the family farm in Donley County, TX. She grew to maturity during the Dust Bowl days of the Great Depression. After graduation from Clarendon H.S., her father took her to Wichita Falls, TX to go to Draughan’s Business College. There she met a young soldier, Wilson Elbert Dolman, Jr. They married January 5, 1941. She spent the next three years following her husband from post to post, finding new jobs each time. By 1943, they were in California where she worked on B-17s as a “Rosie the Riveter” in a Lockheed plant.

In July 1943, Elbert shipped out for the Pacific Theater of WWII, where he served as an artillery sergeant in several campaigns. June soon learned that she was pregnant with their first child and returned to her parents’ farm. Without rural phones, communication was difficult in those days. In September 1945, she was shopping in Clarendon where she met her freshly discharged husband walking down the street from the train station.

For the next five years, she was a farmer’s wife. The family, now with four children, moved to Dumas where Elbert worked in an oil refinery. In 1952, they moved to the booming oilfield town of Odessa where a fifth child was born. After two years as a housewife and mother, she returned to the workforce. She found time to continue her education to become a Certified Professional Secretary. She was active in the Altrusa service club, Jane Phillips Society, and her church. She worked for over 30 years at Phillips Petroleum. She dearly loved her job in lease records. After retirement, she continued to work part-time until age 75.

Elbert died prematurely in 1973 at age 53. With her five children all grown and married, she soon met David Chase, Jr., and they married in 1975. After full retirement, they moved to Abilene to be near his aging extended family. After a long illness, during which June was primary caregiver, David died in 2007. Once again widowed, she stayed busy attending family reunions and grandchildren’s weddings. After suffering a broken hip from a fall, she moved in with her eldest son’s family in Austin. Her long battle with pulmonary disease brought an end to a full life.

June is survived by her five children, Wilson E. Dolman III and wife, Martha, of Austin, Suzanne D. Guyton and husband, Paul, of Austin, Paula D. Berg and husband, Ed, of Salida, CO, Ron Dolman and wife, Carol, of Bethany, OK, and Deborah D. Morris and husband, Aaron, of Thomasville, NC; step-children Gerald Chase of Indianapolis and Brenda C. and husband, Dennis Morey, of Winnsboro; 15 grandchildren; and 11 great-grandchildren.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation with the family from six o’clock until eight o’clock in the evening, on Wednesday, the 27th of February 2013, at Cook-Walden Funeral Home, 6100 North Lamar Boulevard, Austin, Texas.

Graveside services will be conducted at eleven o’clock in the morning on Saturday, the 2nd of March 2013, at Sunset Memorial Gardens, 6801 East Business 20, Odessa, Texas under the direction of Cook-Walden Funeral Home.

In lieu of flowers and customary remembrances, the family suggests donations be made to the university scholarship program of your choice.

Condolences may be sent to www.cookwaldenfuneralhome.com.