Dorothy Ann Gourley

Her family roots in Oklahoma extend before statehood. The Swingle family, of the Muskogee Creek Tribe, were allotted farmland in the Bixby area of Tulsa County by the Dawes Act of 1887 while the Wolfe family settled in Canadian County before statehood on land claimed under the Homestead Act of 1862. This farm remains in the family and has been in continual cultivation for over 100 years.

Dorothy has always been a very urban girl, living in El Reno and attending all her public education there. She was very active in El Reno High School activities and continued to regularly meet with members of her class of 1959.

She began the study of piano and organ at an early age and became the organist at the First Christian Church of El Reno while still in High School. Dorothy’s life-long fiends from childhood Jan Melendez of Santa Fe and Lynda Schedler of Colorado Springs were a Constant part of her life. Her co-worker and friend of forty years Sandy Headrick brought her so much joy and comfort at the end.

Dottie attended her first year of college at William Words College in Fulton, Missouri and finished her undergraduate degree at the University of Tulsa in 1963.

Dottie was an active member of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority and continued to be active with them through-out her life.

One summer was spent at the University of Hawaii obtaining physical education credit in Hula dance. Another summer was spent in Mexico City with a college roommate and her family. With a degree in Fashion Merchandizing, she was employed as a fashion model by an upscale

department store in Tulsa. Seeking a different career path, she began working with the Oklahoma Department of Human Services as a field service worker. Her work was recognized and after a period she was awarded a two-year graduate scholarship to the University of Oklahoma School of Social Work in 1969. She earned a Master of Social Work degree in 1972 and obtained a state license to practice in 1992.

During this period, she met her life-mate Don Gourley, and became his trophy bride in 1975, who also worked at the Department of Human Services in Tulsa. They married at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Tulsa just after Christmas of 1975. Their son Jay Alden Gourley was born in 1976 and joined stepsiblings Cynthia, Donna, and Don Jr.

Dorothy and the baby relocated to Edmond, Oklahoma with her husband and began a career at the state level in the daycare licensing department of DHS. Dottie soon became principal organist at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church and so continued for 25 years. She was a docent at the National Cowboy Museum for 20 years, active in yoga and later a member of the First United Methodist Church of Edmond.

Our Dottie loved spending time at our vacation homes in New-Mexico and t Lake Eufaula. She was bigger than life and leaves a space in the world of her granddaughters Hannah and Stella, our son Jay, and the husband who leaves her dearly that can never be filled.

Our Dorothy leaves stepchildren Cindy, Donna, Don Jr., many extended familyand the number of friends we might all wish to have.

At her request, no memorials were planned.