Dollie (Dude) Virginia (Claxon) Bigelow, devoted mother of Robert Wayne, Larry Dean, Linda Elaine, and Stephen Rae, passed away peacefully of natural causes on February 14 (Valentine's Day), 2026, removing the common origin for their natural lives that cannot be replaced.
She was born outside Vanceburg, Kentucky to Alonzo and Safrona Claxon, the youngest and last survivor of eight siblings. Dollie graduated eighth grade but could not start high school because the textbooks were sold out.
Dollie caught the eye of Dennis Wayne Bigelow and was married shortly before turning 17. Dennis never finished the seventh grade because of needing to work, but "...I never stopped learning". They moved to Mansfield, Ohio, where Dennis started a career at Westinghouse Electric Co. The young couple's first son was born shortly before Dollie's eighteenth birthday.
They raised their four children in the Free Will Baptist denomination where Dollie always enjoyed singing in quartets, trios, duets, solos, and playing guitar. Everyone loved her alto voice and soft strumming. The children never experienced a babysitter, but Dollie did eventually take some employment outside the home, most notably Therm-O-Disc. Dollie extended her care to grandchildren whenever the need arose.
She loved to travel but kept her distance from water after almost drowning during her youth in the creek back home in Kentucky. Shortly after Dennis's retirement from Westinghouse, she and Dennis would stay in a spare bedroom of the mobile home at the building site for Robert and Lilian's timber frame construction and help in any way with the work. Dollie fell through two open stairwells and landed on the concrete floor of the basement, almost killing her. After surgery she limped the final 38 years of her life with the pin in her right femur. Not long after Dennis's death from cancer at 64 years of age, she moved into that basement for the last 30 years of her total life of 94 years, 6 months, 6 days.
Dollie professed that she was going to a better place, having been born again by the Spirit into an endless life with no pain but with all praise and thanksgiving, which is a consolation to the loving members of her family and her church. There is no Free Will in birthings:
The Spirit breathes where It chooses, and the voice of It you (sing.) hear, but definitely not do you (sing.) know from where It comes, and to where It goes; in-this-manner he/she comes-into-existence each, the one having been begotten out-from the Spirit. (John 3:8, author's translation [a.t.] )
Therefore It (the Spirit) says, “Wake-up, you (sing.), the one sleeping; and stand-up out-from the dead ones; and The Christ will be shining upon you.” (Ephesians 5:14, a.t.)
Dollie leaves behind her four children, Robert Wayne (Lilian) Bigelow, Larry Dean (Becky) Bigelow, Linda Elaine (Richard) Souza, and Stephen Ray (Valerie) Bigelow; 10 grandchildren, Noel Medici, Denise Bigelow, Brittany Hobbs, Tiffany Smith, Zachary Bigelow, Richard, Michelle and Rion Souza, Christopher Bigelow and Ashley Davidson; and 17 great grandchildren.
Dollie was preceded in death by her parents; her husband, Dennis Wayne Bigelow; 6 sisters; a brother; and a grandson, Robbie Bigelow.
A graveside service will be held at Oak Grove Memorial Park on Friday, February 20, 2026 at 2:00 pm.
Wappner Funeral Directors-Mansfield is honored to serve the Bigelow family.
