Dorothy Janice Levinson

Dorothy Levinson On July , 2012, Dorothy Janice Wisenberg Levinson died in her ninety-fourth year of life. Born on February 1, 1928 in Laurel, Mississippi to Solomon and Bessie Wisenberg, she spent her childhood and much of her adolescence in that small city. There, she developed the grace and patience and dedication that would characterize her in the coming decades.

During the Great Depression, the family moved to Houston. There, Dorothy graduated first from San Jacinto High School and then enrolled at Rice Institute (now Rice University) majoring in education. She graduated as a Phi Beta Kappa scholar in 1937 and returned to teach at San Jacinto. When World War II erupted, she left her classroom to join the United States Navy. Posted to San Francisco, she served in the communications section.

During those war years, she met Chaplain Nathan Levinson of the United States Army. They fell in love and married. Once the war ended, the young couple moved first to Mason City, Iowa and then to Kalamazoo, Michigan. There, Dorothy gave birth to her two sons, Irving and David. The family moved once again to Chicago, where Dorothy devoted the next decades to her children and home. She was active member of her community, serving as president of the local PTA and volunteering for activities at the synagogue where he husband served as the Rabbi.

As her sons prepared to go off to college, Dorothy decided to return to teaching. In preparation, she earned Master's degrees from Northwestern University and Northeastern Illinois State University. Then she began two decades of teaching at the Edgewood Junior High School in Highland, Park, Illinois. She remained there until reaching retirement age.

At that time, Dorothy returned to Houston, where so many members of the family still lived. The next nineteen years brought with them the time to read, to travel, and to work in her garden as she had when she lived in Laurel. She renewed old acquaintances, made new friends, watched her nieces and nephews grow to adulthood, and continued to live an active life.

However, the passage of time took its toll and at ninety-one, she moved to the Heritage Village Retirement Center in McAllen. There as in all the other places, she enjoyed the company of the many people who became her good friends. Preceded in death by her husband Nathan, her brothers Avrohm and Alvin and her sister Sidney; she is survived by her son Irving (of Edinburg, Texas), her son David (of Bellevue, Washington), her granddaughter Katy (of Mountain View, California), her daughter-in-law Virginia, her grandson Dan and her granddaughter Rosie (all of Olympia Washington), four nephews and four nieces, and the many friends whose lives she touched over the years. Good-bye, dearest Dorothy.

Funeral Services will be held at Levy Funeral Directors, Tuesday August 7, 2012 at 11:30 am. Interment will follow at Beth Yeshurun Cemetery, 8341 S. Post Oak. Officiating Rabbi Jack Segal.