Dorothy Marie Burkhart

Dorothy Marie Rupp Burkhart was born on February 13, 1926 in Cheney, Washington to Walter and Henrietta Rupp. She had two older sisters, Betty Rupp Labish and Eleanor Rupp Kiner. Her younger brother was Harvey Rupp. Her siblings and their spouses preceded her in death. After graduating from Cheney High School in 1944, she attended a business school to become a bookkeeper and secretary. She married Jack Burkhart, her husband of 63 years, on April 26, 1946. They lived in Portland until 1953.

The Burkhart family, Jack, Dorothy, Helen, and Sharon, accompanied by Jack’s parents, Ralph and Emma Burkhart, then moved to Alder Hill Farm on the Lewis and Clark River near Astoria. Son, Jack Jr., was born in 1962. Dorothy was an active partner in running the farm. She did the bookkeeping, milked cows, raised calves and delivered their bottled milk to homes and stores.

She was very active in the Farm Bureau organization, Oregon Dairy Wives, the Republican Party and the Oregon Bicentennial celebration in 1959. After selling the farm in 2003, they moved to Tualatin to be near their two daughters. She is survived by daughter and son-in-law, Helen and Frank Francis, daughter and son-in-law, Sharon and Robert Kabusreiter and son and daughter-in-law, Jack and Lindy Burkhart, five grandchildren and two great granddaughters.