Doratha D Thomas

Each morning, Doratha read the newspaper and magazines with her tea and toast. She clipped articles and would mail them with a personal note. She could rattle off sports scores, current events, politics, and history. She had magical powers with plants, evident in her yard full of beautiful rhododendrons and azaleas. She kept a secret stash of chocolate. She was born before women could vote and took elections very seriously, never missing her chance to cast a ballot.

Doratha cherished life. She said, “People don’t pass away gently; I will fight all the way.”

Born March 16, 1915 in Gettysburg, PA Doratha is the daughter of Edward and Alma Flint Dick. A middle child of seven, she was predeceased by Flint, Helen, George, Kenneth and James and is survived by Phyllis Seal of San Antonio, TX.

Doratha graduated from Millersville State Teachers College in 1939 and taught in one-room schoolhouses in Lancaster County. During WWII, she was a “Rosie the Riveter” at Armstrong Cork Company.

Doratha met Frank Thomas playing sports in college. They married in 1942 and moved to Richmond in 1961. She and Frank joined St. Luke Lutheran Church and treasured the friendships made there. Doratha was active in Women of St. Luke as well as the ELCA of the Virginia Synod and Church Women United.

Doratha traveled worldwide with the Richmond Friendship Force and the Virginia Museum of Art. She loved learning and spoke often about her friends from the Antique Study Group and The Shepherd Center. She maintained houses in Richmond and Virginia Beach.

Doratha is survived by three children, Tanya Richter (Fred Richter), Annville, PA, Thomas (Katherine Brearley) of Allentown, PA, and Timothy (Edith Thomas) of Charlottesville, VA.

She loved her eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren: Stacey Richter (Tom Nash), Seth Richter (Mary Dart), Matthew, Morgan (Brittany), Owen, Whitney, Cameron, and Tilden; Isabella, Jackson, and Tanner.

She will be missed by family, friends, her church community and all those to whom she gave so much of herself.

The Family will receive friends from 1:00 – 2:00pm at St. Luke Lutheran Church with the funeral service starting at 2:00pm, interment will be at a later date in PA.

Doratha disliked cut flowers; she said she hated to see them wilt. The family asks instead that memorial gifts be sent to St. Luke Lutheran Church in Richmond, 7757 Chippenham Parkway, Richmond, VA 23225 or Doctors Without Borders.

Services By The Woody Funeral Home, Huguenot Chapel.