Born on New Year’s Eve, December 31, 1926, to parents Alfred Edward Butz and Ora Elsie (Buck) Butz, Doris Geraldine Butz grew up on a farm in Monclova, Ohio during the Great Depression. She graduated from Monclova High School in 1944 during World War II.
Having never learned to drive a car, she mostly rode city buses and always enjoyed talking to the bus drivers and other passengers. During her younger working years, she sometimes took sightseeing trips to western states by riding Greyhound buses. Doris worked mostly at diners and dry cleaners near Toledo, Ohio; in Springfield, Missouri; and in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Her latest job before retiring was at Loaf n Ladle in downtown Fort Wayne.
Doris married John Richard Grill in 1968, and they settled in the southside of Fort Wayne where they raised their daughter. Their faith was very important to them. Doris went to church for most of her life. Among the churches she attended were First Assembly of God and Fairhaven Mennonite Church in Fort Wayne. Her favorite hymn was The Old Rugged Cross.
She was preceded in death by her husband (March 21, 1981), her parents, her brothers Harry, Wayne and Bobby Butz, and by her sisters Hallie Mitchell, Betty Simpson, Florence Drennan, Dorothy Bunde, and Reata Fox. She is survived by brother Marvin “Sonny” Butz; her daughter Avonna (Joseph) Crabill; and many nieces and nephews, neighbors, and church family.
Thank you to all those who helped, befriended, and watched over her through the years, and thank you to the caregivers during her later years at Cameron Woods in Angola, Indiana, and in the Newberry, Michigan area at Maple Ridge, Robin’s Nest, and Newberry Assisted Living.
Burial at Woodlawn Cemetery in Auburn, Indiana.
In place of flowers, please consider donations to Fairhaven Mennonite Church on Winter Street in Fort Wayne, Indiana or to MCC.org. May God’s peace be with you.
