Dorothy McCaffrey

Dorothy McCaffrey, much loved wife, mother, grandmother, and aunt, at the age of 97, passed away peacefully at home in Apple Valley, CA on Monday, December 6, 2021. She was born February 14, 1924, in Hansen, Idaho, to the late Guy L. and Grace F. Cowan. Dorothy was the seventh of eight surviving siblings. She grew up on her parent’s farm in Idaho, and often shared stories of when she was a little girl there. She played house in the pig pen (while the pigs were out). She loved playing outdoor games with her sisters and brothers. To get to school, she would ride in a horse-drawn wagon, which was quite chilly during the winter. She spoke of the sound of the whistling wind at the house her father had built. She was fond of the various fruit trees on the farm. Her chores included cleaning out the cistern, breaking the ice on the frozen watering hole for the horses, and riding “Kaiser” to bring water to the farm workers. She also shared the story of when she was a young girl, and trained as a girl scout, she raced to the occasion to save her young nephew who had slipped into the Snake River’s swift flowing water. After high school, she moved from Idaho to Phoenix to live with her Aunt Blanch and Uncle Arthur, and helped with the various chores on their dairy farm. While in Phoenix, she graduated from nursing school. As a young nurse she moved to San Francisco, and then to Los Angeles where she worked in LA’s public health clinics, and also as a nurse for the American Red Cross.

While living in Los Angeles, she met a Loyola University student and young army veteran, Keith McCaffrey, who affectionately called her, “Dot.” She married Keith on September 8, 1956. They enjoyed a brief honeymoon at the El Swano “dude ranch” in Lucerne Valley. At first, they shared an apartment in Hollywood, but soon moved to Torrance, CA, where they began raising their young family. She was a nurse for Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance. In the early sixty’s, Dorothy and Keith moved out to Twenty-nine Palms, CA to enjoy clean air and desert sunshine with their four of what would soon become five sons. Dorothy was a fine homemaker. She worked as an RN at the Marine base, at the local community hospital in Twenty-nine Palms, and also with the American Red Cross Blood Bank. In 1975, the family moved to Hesperia, CA, where with Keith, they completed raising their five boys. Dorothy enjoyed her home in Hesperia, where she lived out most all of the rest of her life. Dorothy and Keith enjoyed 63 years together. Dorothy loved gardening, cooking, quilting, and activities and events with the Church, including Marriage Encounter. She often took time to visit the sick and elderly to share the love of the Lord with them. She also enjoyed swimming, playing scrabble and card games, trying her luck at the casinos, and camping with her husband and family, as well as other adventures with Keith while they were both able.

In her later years Dorothy sometimes shared she felt left behind by her generation, in that she was more than twelve years predeceased by all of her siblings and her in-laws, and two years by her husband. She is survived by her five sons: Joseph (Emma), Ralph (Cathy), Guy (Carol), Patrick (Kelly), and David (Kim), her eleven grandchildren and eleven great grandchildren, and by her beloved nieces, and nephews. Rosary, followed by a funeral Mass are planned to begin 10:30 a.m. Friday, January 7, 2022 at Our Lady of the Desert Catholic Church, 18386 Corwin Road, Apple Valley, CA 92307. Burial will follow directly at the Desert View Memorial Park, 11500 Amargosa Road in Victorville, CA 92392.