Doris Laverne Knight

Doris Laverne Storey Knight passed away on January 30, 2024 after a decades long struggle with mixed dementia, probable Alzheimer’s disease and multiple strokes. Her final days were spent under hospice care due to acute health problems caused by bouts with sepsis and cellulitis in December and complications following surgery from a broken hip in January.

Doris was born on July 29, 1934, in Greenwood, Arkansas. Her parents, Benjamin Asa Storey and Daisy Francis Storey had a total of 13 children. Doris’s older sister, Millie Ellen, as well as an older brother John Aron, passed away as young children prior to Doris’s birth. Growing up, Doris was the only girl amongst 10 brothers.

Doris married Glenn Knight on April 23, 1948, at the age of 13. Despite their young ages Doris and Glenn had a long and happy marriage that lasted for more than 55 years until Glenn’s death in November 2003. Together they raised three children. A fourth child, their first-born Glenn Arnold, died just a few hours after birth.

Glenn and Doris lived in Arkansas during the early years of their marriage, then moved to California in 1951. Over the years they lived in the cities of Corona and Alameda, California then purchased a home in San Leandro, California in 1960. They owned and lived in that house for nearly three decades.

In 1988, following some major health problems experienced by Glenn, Doris and Glenn moved south to Oceanside, California to be closer to their children and grandchildren. Doris and Glenn lived together in that house until Glenn’s passing and then Doris continued living there by herself for several more years. The last years of her life were spent living with her daughter Charlotte with frequent trips to her sons’ homes until declining cognitive health brought the need for 24-hour care. Doris moved to a memory care facility in June 2023.

During much of her adult life Doris was a home day care provider and had a hand in raising dozens of children over the years. Several of these children have kept in touch with Doris after they grew up and many of them still call her Grandma. She supported the mothers and fathers of these children as well, adding whole families to her “family by heart” collection.

Always busy, Doris led a full and productive life. She loved to sew, embroider, crochet, quilt and read. Doris loved flowers, gardening and visiting gardens. She grew many types of flowers, vegetables, and fruit trees of every kind throughout her life. She loved to cook and bake and shared her creations with family members, friends, and those in need. Trips to parks to feed the ducks, geese and squirrels were a favorite activity and she loved watching the sea lions and walking at Oceanside harbor. She loved birds, both real and those made of wood and ceramic, and spent hours admiring their uniqueness and beauty.

Doris excelled at mothering, grand mothering and her crowning jewels were her great grandchildren.

She loved those children/ grandchildren beyond measure, and they loved her in return. Her children by marriage claimed her as their mother, too, and she treated them as her own.

Doris was active in her local Southern Baptist church wherever she landed. Her faith in God/Jesus was strong and sincere. Her belief that through that faith she would reunite with loved ones in heaven and be with God after dying carried her through life and its difficulties. She would often talk of being with her Glenn again, free of the pain and cognitive issues that plagued the last years of her life.

Doris is survived by her three children and their spouses, son Jerry Knight and his spouse Janae, of Long Beach, CA, son Jimmy (Jim) Knight and his spouse, Charlynn, of Coarsegold, CA and daughter Charlotte Knight Lustig and her spouse Ron Lustig of Oceanside, CA, 5 grandchildren: Christine Knight and her spouse Robert Brunell, Kenneth Lustig and his spouse Rhiannon Lyons, Jeremiah (Jay) Knight and his wife Stephanie, Kevin Lustig and his spouse Jessica (Jess) Isaacs and Jessica Sullivan and her spouse Brian Sullivan, and Jill Tisdale, widow of grandson Nathan Knight. She has 8 great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by two of her grandchildren, Nathan Knight, and Allison Lustig.

Doris has two surviving siblings David Storey and his wife, Connie, of Toquerville, UT and Robert (Bob) Storey and his wife, Judy, of Rogers, Arkansas, as well as many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by nine brothers: Benjamin, Marvin (Shorty), James Eugene (Gene), Earl, Floyd, John, Willis Bert (Bert), Gerald (Jerry), Willard and one sister, Millie.

Her beloved husband Glenn, passed away on November 23, 2003.

In lieu of a traditional funeral Doris’s family has chosen to honor her life at a private family service.

In Doris’s honor, an account has been established for memorial donations through the San Diego County Alzheimer’s Association, https://www.alzsd.org/tribute-gifts

Doris Laverne Storey Knight was a beautiful example of a life well lived and will be sorely missed by those who loved her.