Doris Eagen

MARBLEHEAD - Doris Eagen passed away peacefully on Saturday, May 4, 2024 at age 91. She was born in Clinton, Iowa and was the daughter of Earl McIvaine Slaymaker and Marguerite Kiesel Slaymaker. Doris married her high school sweetheart, Duane M. Eagen at 18 and became a Navy wife in Norfolk, VA. Over the next three decades, Doris raised two daughters, built several homes and moved her family numerous times around the country for her husband’s management career.

Upon her arrival in Marblehead in 1966, Doris embraced her new community, meeting lifelong friends through the Newcomers and Gourmet Clubs. She joined the Marblehead VNA in the 1970s and worked as their Home Health Coordinator until retirement in 1997.

It is difficult to summarize all the ways in which Marblehead impacted her life: Leaf and Mud Weekends with friends, volunteering at the Lee Mansion, Cottage Gardeners, Ocean Park Civic League, Boston Yacht Club, Dolphin Yacht Club, Arts Festival events, her cherished home and neighbors on Sunset Road and so much more.

Doris loved all things social and later became a member of the Peripheral Neuropathy Group, Founders’ Glass Club and Orchid Club. She also enjoyed time spent with family, antiquing, gardening, sailing and theater. She had an innate talent for color, design and fashion and could always be relied upon for beauty tips and clothing insights. She also believed fervently in the importance of education for women and instilled in her daughters the belief that they could achieve anything.

A chance encounter during a girls’ night out to Marblehead Little Theater changed her life in May of 1985 when she met John Vdoviak. Together, they traveled the globe, watched a million Salem Harbor sunsets from Doris’s deck, and shared their families, their homes and their lives with one another. John remained her devoted and steadfast partner until his death in 2019.

Doris’s final years were spent at the Village at Waterman Lake in Greenville, RI where she received exceptional care. The family is incredibly grateful to the Village staff for making Doris’s years there filled with love and affection.

Doris was pre-deceased by her partner, John Vdoviak. She is survived by her daughters, Dr. Kathleen Koehler of Martha’s Vineyard and Barbara Eagen Wright of Woodstock, CT and Marblehead, son-in-law Thomas Wright, her brother Richard Slaymaker and wife Susan of Clinton, MS, Andy Koehler of Framingham, MA, Meghan Wright Hazelwood of Astoria, New York, Matthew Koehler of Laurel Maryland, Lauren Wright of Washington DC, Courtney Jones of Narragansett, RI, Adam Wright of Wakefield, RI, Garth Vdoviak and his wife, Kimberly of Farmingdale, ME, Janis Hardiman and her husband, Alan of Mirror Lake, NH, Vdoviak and Hardiman grandchildren and great grandchildren and finally her loyal, childhood friend, Mary Bartz of Colorado Springs, Colorado.

Visiting Hours for Doris will be held on Monday, June 17, 2024 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at Eustis & Cornell of Marblehead, 142 Elm Street. Her Funeral Service will follow at 11:30 a.m. in the funeral home. Interment will follow the service at Waterside Cemetery, Marblehead. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the Foundation for Peripheral Neuropathy, Alzheimer’s Association or Female Humane Society of Marblehead, MA. Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at eustisandcornellfuneralhome.com for Doris' family.