Doris Derer

Doris was born in Sydenham (London) England on March 23, 1921 to Emma (née Cooper) Chitty and William Louis Lutman Chitty. She attended local schools and received her secondary diploma with honors from the University of London school district. During WWII she worked as a switchboard operator in London, often spending the night in the basement of the building where she worked because the frequent bombing made it unsafe to travel home. At that time her family lived in Croydon which was the most bombed area of London.

During the war Doris met Joseph Derer at a dance that she attended with her sister in London. Joe was a medic and ambulance driver stationed at Great Ashfield Airfield outside of London. Doris and Joe both loved ballroom dancing. They were married on July 14, 1945 at St. Mary’s church in Beddington (London). Doris joined Joe after the war where they first lived in Jersey City NJ and later New Brunswick NJ. When her children were in grade school, Doris was president of the PTA and later worked as a preschool teacher. She passed a college equivalency exam and worked at the Rutgers University Library for almost 20 years, retiring as head of the circulation department. Doris and Joe moved to Spring Hill FL in 1982, where they continued to dance and earned the nickname the dancing Derers. Doris was an active member of the YMCA, St. Andrews Episcopal Church and the Ladies of the British Commonwealth in Spring Hill. Joe, her husband of 64 years, predeceased her in 2009.

She is survived by her son Michael and his wife Barbara of Kendall Park NJ, and her daughter Susan and her husband Mark of Marlboro VT and Dunedin FL, three grandchildren (Jeffrey, Eric and Adam) and two great-grandchildren (Cyrus and Roxanne), as well as nieces and nephews in England and the US.