Dora Anna Downing

A social worker in her early working years, Dora Anna [Frattaroli] Downing, however, believed her legacy would not be found in the workplace but in the home. She frequently jokingly remarked that when she passed, she would be eulogized with the words “she cooked good.” While she was correct to believe she would be remembered for her culinary talents, she greatly underestimated her impact on family, friends and the communities in which she lived during her 95 years of life. Dora passed away on February 1, 2022, after contracting COVID-19 and while suffering from cancer and other illnesses.

The daughter of immigrants from Lucca, Italy, Dora was raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she attended the Academy of Notre Dame de Namur and went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Pennsylvania in 1948. She attended college while continuing to live in her parents’ home above the family’s lunch-counter center-city restaurant, where she frequently worked. After graduation from Penn, Dora’s first job was as a social worker at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia. In 1953, Dora went with girlfriends to a neighborhood dance in the city, where Dora met her future husband, the late Donald George Downing. Don would say the luckiest day of his life was the day he met “a pretty Italian girl in a red dress.” Don and Dora married two years later and went on to spend 64 wonderful years together as husband and wife.

Don and Dora raised their two children, Gary and Andrea, in the Philadelphia suburbs before a job transfer in 1973 took them to Libertyville, Illinois. While still living in Broomall, Pa, Dora worked for JRP Surveys, a marketing research service in Media, Pa., owned by her late brother and sister-in-law Elio and Yolanda Frattaroli. During Don’s working years, Dora often

did double duty as a single parent since Don’s career as a salesman for Rohm & Haas kept him on the road 50 percent of the time. With her young children, Dora was the instigator of “Rags for Sale” laundry basket rides, wet kitchen towel “battles” and family-favorites leftover night. She applied discipline, order and love in equal measures. She lived up to her reputation as a baker and chef, but she was willing to occasionally indulge her children’s desires for a frozen Swanson TV dinner on a four-section aluminum tray. Dora also was a passionate and talented seamstress–a skill she would have liked to have passed on to her daughter, but most definitely did not–as well as an avid reader who also loved classical music, piano and dancing.

While always prioritizing her children and family, Dora found time to volunteer for organizations such as Condell Memorial Hospital (Libertyville), Libertyville Women’s Club and the First Presbyterian Church of Libertyville Auxiliary. In retirement, Don and Dora relocated to New Bern, North Carolina, where they lived from 1999 to 2007 in a custom-designed home they enjoyed building and living in for almost a decade.

The final chapter of her life was spent with Don at the Heritage of Brentwood in Brentwood, Tennessee, a senior community where she lived from 2007 until 2022. They moved to the Heritage upon its opening and became active in many activities and cherished the numerous friendships they enjoyed with fellow residents. Until her final years, Dora was active in the book club, Glee Club and the culinary committee. Dora also was a member of East Brentwood Presbyterian Church. A reluctant traveler, Dora gave in to Don’s love of traveling and traveled extensively in the second half of her life, often on cruises that took them to Europe, Asia and beyond.

Based on her health history and family history, Dora never expected to outlive her beloved husband Donald. Yet, after his passing in 2019, Dora displayed a will to live that surprised both family and friends. In retrospect, her parents’ immigrant success story, her own history of raising a family and her desire to live to see great grandchildren should have made her inner strength more transparent.

Dora’s children, Gary and Andrea, went to extend their gratitude to Heritage staff members Cathy Joki, Stacey Hart and Ron Flynn, who are among the numerous employees who went the extra mile to make Dora’s final days and years as joy-filled as possible. Finally, it would be impossible for us to express in words our love and gratitude to East Brentwood Presbyterian Church Pastor John Hilley, who was a steadfast friend and spiritual leader to both our parents through the final years and hours of their lives. We always will be grateful for our mother’s hospice nurse, Stetson Hoffman of Aveanna Hospice, who was our lifeline to our mother in her final months and showered us with beautiful memories of their time together. Finally, a thank you to Heritage resident Joan Lillie, who remained a dear friend to our mother as she moved from independent living to assisted living and then skilled nursing.

Dora is survived by her son Gary and his wife Shannon O’Hearn Downing, her daughter Andrea and her husband Scott Peck and four grandchildren, Clare Downing, Callan Ann Downing, Heather Peck Tyner (and her husband Adam Tyner), Stephanie Peck Gallien (and her husband Jared Gallien) and her great grandchild Owen James Tyner. She was preceded in death by her husband, her two brothers and three sisters.

A celebration of life for Dora will be held at a later date.

The family requests remembrances be made in the form of donations to East Brentwood Presbyterian Church, 9000 Concord Road, Brentwood, TN 37027.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.Brentwood-Roesch-PattonFuneralHome.com for the DOWNING family.