Dorothea Dorothy Marie Henshaw Valentine

Dorothea was born in Henderson, NV at St Rose Dominican Hospital to Sam and Donna Henshaw. Dorothea was the second of nine kids. The oldest was Ronald, then Barbara, Debbie, Michael, Jimmy and Jane (the twins), Jeff and finally Suzie.

For the early part of her childhood, she and Barbara lived with their great grandparents. When Dorothea was little, her great grandmother nicknamed her Pilly. Dorothea was always a mischievous child getting into things she wasn't supposed to and she had a way about her that drew others into that mischief with her. She spent most of her weekends with Barbara in the shed at her great grandparents house where of course she wasn't supposed to be. Dorothea and her sister Barbara had got a brand new dress from their great grandpa and Dorthea thought it would be ok if they played in the shed. She saw a can of black paint and decided to open it and a little, ok well a lot got on to her and Barbara's dresses. Whew, great grandma was mad, but great grandpa on the other hand had a soft spot for the two and he managed to turn the other cheek.

On another occasion Dorothea was playing the backyard with Barbara and a wasp nest was just too tempting for Dorothea to resist playing with. So when the swarm of angry wasp came out, she told Barbara to run. Well running wasn't the best idea cause they all chased and stung Barbara.

As she got a little older she would go to the Spot Cafe on Main Street that he great grandparents owned to get free food. Her great grandparents moved to the desert where it was a drive to take the trash out. Dorothea was always one to honor a dare and her siblings knew it. On the way to the trash, sitting on the back of the station wagon tailgate, Barbara dared Dorothea to jump off the back of the tailgate while the car was moving. So of course she did, except she forgot to let go. She scraped up her legs and belly and didn't want her great grandparents mad at her too; so she made her sister promise not to tell. Well she couldn't keep it a secret for long once she got home and they saw how bad Dorothea was and Barbara told on her. Her great grandparents we mad and spent the evening cleaning pebbles and dirt out of her skin. She was such a trooper though.

Dorothea's great grandpa passed away in 1966 and she changed and began getting closer to some of her other siblings. She lived with her parents now and Ronald and Debbie were now closest to her. They would spend hours in the room listening to music and dancing. Her and Ronald would get Debbie to go to the store to steal candy and soda. She loved to push the boundaries and love to be goofy; that really showed in junior high and high school. Once she was in the crosswalk and the crossing guard was trying to get her to hurry through, but she decided to dance her way through instead and made the crossing guard mad.

Dorothea and some of the other Henshaw kids had tendency to get into trouble by ditching, smoking in the bathroom and fighting. She made it a point to defend her brother Ronald as he was more of a lover then a fighter. Often Dorothea and Barbara would be fighting while Ronald got away. Dorothea never backed down and could never be beat one on one. Due to some of her crazy antics, her and some of her siblings and other kids on the bus while passing a jock strap around, Dorothea got it, shot it like a rubberband that hit the bus driver in the head. Well, the driver wasn't too happy and kicked them all off the bus and chased them with a broom. They thought it was funny.

With all the trouble Dorothea and her siblings caused in junior high, the principal switched schools. Well, he was not free for long as they wound up in the same high school as him. They were so bad that the principal cried, having them in his office all the time. In the 70's, Dorothea was a hippie and hung with the crowd of free love, often sneaking out of the house and running away, with and without Ronald, to hang in the parks. Her dad often had to run all over town checking all the parks to bring her butt home. He tried to out smart them by sleeping in the living room on the couch. She still managed to get out and run a muck always free. In high school she was feeling a little love and peace and was dared to dance nude on the roof of a car to "Jeremiah Was A Bullfrog." Always taking a dare and always an entertaining, strong woman.

Dorothea had a way about her. When her sister Barbara and her newborn son Richie came back from Germany and were staying with her, they were off on their time schedule. Richie was crying while Dorothea was trying to sleep, so she took him and laid him on her stomach and he fell right to sleep to the sound of her baby (Shannon's) heartbeat. Dorothea had nine kids, Shannon, Juana, Alex & Michael, Dorothea (Yoyo), Benny, Charmaine, Justin and Lena.

Dorothea loved her food and drinks. She would sometimes ask Barbara to bring her tea from Henderson all the way to North Town cause she believed it tasted better. She came to visit Barbara when she lived in Mississippi and and wanted Wienerschnitzel, so she got it and ate her chili dog, but she had another one. She went to sleep and woke up yelling because someone ate her chili dog. No one ate her chili dog, she had it. So they looked all over and come to find out she took it to bed with her and slept on it. She laughed for a while at that one. She also had a habit of sleep-eating. She had her ex-husband Juan make a strawberry dulce de leche cake and they all ate a piece that night, but the next morning there was hardly any cake left. She was upset and yelling at her nephew Steven for eating all the cake. She had to be advised that she got up and ate the cake all night in her sleep. She had cake crumbs in the bed and frosting on her face It was funny.

Arrangements under the direction of Palm Downtown Funeral Home, Las Vegas, NV.