On Monday, July 15, 2019, Dorothy J. Putscher Boet gently took her last breath and slipped easily from this world to the next. Her star, which was gently fading over the past several years, is no more. But, there are new stars, formed from her presence, that fill the sky in ever increasing numbers, as she often remarked, “all because two people fell in love”.
She was just 15 days shy of her 90th birthday on passing. She was born July 30, 1929 in Spring Lake, New Jersey to Frederick and Rosalie Knapp. She and her sister Lois grew up on the Jersey shore in Manasquan and Sea Girt, forming a bond to the seashore that she maintained all her days. Upon graduation from Manasquan High School she attended Catherine Gibbs Secretarial School in New York City.
She was but 19 years old when, in 1949 she married William “Bill” Putscher Jr. on the 18th of April at Our Lady of Mt Carmel Church in Ridgewood NJ. Dorothy and Bill made their home in New Jersey and raised their six kids. In 1964 they took a two year transfer to San Rafael, California. Then back to Jersey they came. She remained in in New Jersey until making the long move to Houston, Texas where she remained till 1988. While in Houston, Dorothy worked as a Realtor for over 15 years. Her devotion and love for Bill endured until his premature death at the age of 58 in 1986.
Life, with all its joys, trials, exasperations, anxieties, relocations and smiles followed. For Dorothy it was the smiles we recall; that sly little smile and the twinkle in the eye. She was a Mom, but one always sensed that she was really a lot of fun underneath all the Mom stuff.
Throughout all the issues that face a large family, she was strength personified. That inner strength was never tested more than when in 1986, Bill passed suddenly. Her entire world changed. The house, the kennel, the beloved basenjis and foxhounds were all issues she faced. And face these issues she did and then with typical aplomb, she changed everything and relocated from Houston to Jupiter Florida, back to the shore, back to her future.
Jupiter would start a new chapter in her life, and in the lives of her family. Now there were in- laws and grandchildren, new births, new relationships, even for Dorothy. In 1989 she married John Boet, a retired physician. They made their home in Jupiter and over the next 15 years, until his death in 2004, he cared for and provided for her as a loving husband.
In her later years, she would travel, make friends, enjoy life and love getting up every morning to sit on her porch watching out back at the boats traveling the intercostal waterway and glancing out her front door at the coast with that famous lighthouse we all came to love. Dorothy was known for saying ,“ I’ve had a wonderful life and a beautiful family.”
Life was good for her and for that we are all so thankful. But as in all things, changes come, slowly drifting into her life, requiring her to lean on her family for many of the same things they had leaned upon her for all those years ago.
The final relocation took her back to Houston to where she had called home for so many years. We recognize and thank the staff of the Atria Senior Living for all they did to provide her comfort and happiness.
Today, the sky is full of stars created from her presence. She was preceded in death by her daughter Kathy, sister Lois, two husbands (Bill and John), a good friend and companion Bob and a daughter-in-law Susan. Surviving her today are her remaining five children: Terry and husband Mitch, Chris and husband Ben, Paul, Mary, Noel and wife Terry. She was gifted with 14 grandchildren and 15 great-grandchildren. She will be missed deeply but we are thankful that she has found peace and that her journey is complete.
Her wish was that she be cremated and that half her ashes rest near Bill’s gravesite in Tomball, Texas and the remaining ashes be scattered along the New Jersey shore, back home after a long journey through this thing we call life.
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