Dorothy Jean Richards

The Richards family mourns the loss of Dorothy J. Richards who was the beloved mother of Deanna and Douglas, mother in law of Mitchell and Beth and grandmother to Eric, Dana, Taylor, Derek, Megan, Sam, (married to Megan), Ryan and a 7th grandchild expected to be born in early October.

Dorothy was born on June 14, 1929 in Frankfurt, Kentucky and died on September 18, 2023 in Belton, Missouri. Her parents were Thelma Blanche Fisk and Flavius Josephus Fight. The Fight family moved to El Paso, Texas where Dorothy grew up with her siblings, Raymond, Estelle, Betty, Nancy and Simon.

In 1945, Dorothy and her family moved to Warrensburg, Missouri where she attended the local high school and met her future husband Howard Richards. She received a B.S. in Mathematics from the University of Central Missouri in 1949 and thereafter opened The Dorothy Fight Dance School in Warrensburg with her sister Estelle. Once, when carrying boxes of tap shoes at the train station, Harry Truman offered to help her carry them. Dorothy also worked as an accountant at TWA in Kansas City and even managed to correspond with Howard Hughes, alerting him of a small accounting error she found. Hughes actually responded with a letter commending her for detecting the error.

In 1956, Dorothy married Howard Richards and in 1958 her daughter Deanna was born. Subsequently, Dorothy attended graduate classes at the University of Central Missouri, earning an M.S. in Speech Pathology in 1964. Douglas was born in 1966. Dorothy worked as a speech pathologist in the Kansas City School District for 34 years. Her husband Howard died January 9, 1995. Dorothy retired from teaching in 1996.

Dorothy was dearly loved and will be missed profoundly. Our hearts are broken at her passing, but she will live on in our hearts and memories forever.