Dorothy Orr

Mrs. Dorothy Delaplane Orr died in her sleep on January 18 in Las Vegas. She entered this world in 1920, at the dawn of the Roaring 20's in a small Iowa farm town, and like the Roaring 20's Dorothy was always in motion.

She delivered papers on her bicycle accompanied by her dog Jack. Then she delivered fresh, hot donuts to the train station where she hawked them to hungry travelers. Though forbidden to do so, she played sandlot football with neighborhood boys until a broken arm ended her gridiron days. Every summer found Dorothy swimming and diving at the town pool, earning the nickname " Minnie the Mermaid."

Dorothy earned her RN degree in Des Moines, Iowa, but quickly headed "out west" to explore the country. She first worked in a TB sanatorium in Denver, Colorado. When WWII broke out she headed to Santa Monica to work in the Children's Hospital. After the war she worked as an industrial nurse for a mining company in the small desert town of Trona, California. In this romantic desert locale she met her future husband and the love her life, Bill Orr, on a blind date at a swimming hole. They married soon after, in 1949.

Bill and Dorothy settled near Hanford, Washington, where Dorothy became a labor and delivery nurse at the Hanford Army Hospital. Three children later they moved across the Columbia River where Dorothy was a medical, surgical nurse at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital. Shortly after the assassination of President Kennedy, the family moved to Nevada, where Dorothy resumed industrial nursing at the Nevada Test Site. It was here that she joined the Teamsters Union, to gain fair representation from a large government contractor. She loved attending the rowdy Teamsters meetings in Las Vegas.

When her youngest child left home, Dorothy earned a Masters in Nursing degree at the University of Nevada, Reno. She then worked as an ER nurse in Las Vegas and ended her career as a private duty nurse. A people person, Dorothy loved every phase of her nursing career and the many patients she cared for over the years.

She is survived her sons Scott (Jackie) and Jeff (Nancy); her daughter Mary (Bob); and her grandchildren Glenn and Rochelle Orr and William and Katherine Bond. Funeral services will be held at 1:00pm on Thursday, January 26th at Palm Mortuary.