Doris Elaine Folkerts

Doris Elaine Folkerts, née Freitag, was born on July 2, 1929, in McPherson Township, Minnesota, to Herman Freitag and his wife, Esther Freitag, née Doering. Doris spent her formative years on the family farm in McPherson Township. After graduating from high school, she enrolled in the Kahler School of Nursing in Rochester, Minnesota, and graduated in September 1950. She then began working as a surgical nurse in Rochester. In January 1953, Doris and a nursing school classmate, who would become her lifelong dearest friend, moved to Arizona to explore a new place. Although they may have intended only to see somewhere different, Doris and her classmate never returned to Minnesota.

In 1955, Doris met Wendell Folkerts, a civil engineer, and they were married on November 25 of that year. The following year, they began raising a family of three children. Over the decades that followed, Doris was a loving and devoted full-time mother and wife, a source of kind and compassionate care for her visually challenged father-in-law, a faithful member of her church congregation, and an extraordinary grandmother to her nine grandchildren. She was also a gifted cook, baker, and seamstress. In her kitchen, Doris was always eager to teach her children and grandchildren how to prepare many delicious dishes and baked goods.

Doris was preceded in death by her husband, Wendell Folkerts; her father, Herman Freitag; and her mother, Esther Freitag.

Doris is survived by her children, Warren (Christine) Folkerts, Michael (Cynthia) Folkerts, and Mary (Gordon) Watson; nine grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

Visitation will be held on Saturday, August 15, beginning at 9:00 AM, followed by a funeral service at 10:00 AM at A.L. Moore Mortuary, 710 W. Bethany Road, Phoenix, AZ.