Doris May Reith

Doris was born on a farm near Freeman, South Dakota, on May 29, 1931, to Jacob W. Schorzman and Ruth Marie Schorzman (nee Meyer). She had an older sister, Margaret, and a host of aunts, uncles, and cousins, with whom she and Margaret lived after their mother Ruth died in 1936 of pneumonia at the young age of 26.

After the death of her mother, many changes took place for Doris and her sister. Their father, grieving his wife’s death, moved to Texas, and the girls were taken in by other family members for several years. Despite these difficult times, Doris remembered “the good and silly times we and our many cousins had, running loose and free on whichever farm we were calling home at the time.” Eventually Jacob remarried, and he and new stepmother Josephine moved the girls with them to Pampa, TX, where Jacob worked as a laborer for Phillips 66 Petroleum Co. in Borger, TX.

In 1944, Doris and Margaret were enrolled at Concordia Teachers College in Seward, NE, where they lived for the next seven years, traveling back to Texas each summer. After receiving her teachers diploma in 1951, Doris taught grades 1-3 at St. John’s Lutheran School in Houston, TX.

The following summer of 1952, she married James W. Reith, whom she had met as a freshman at college. They were married at her home church in Borger, with sister Margaret as bridesmaid and soloist. The young couple moved to St. Louis, MO to establish their first home in a typical cold-water flat in the south part of the city. Jim was principal of a Lutheran school, Doris taught classes in the lower grades, and they gave birth to their first daughter Stephanie. In 1955, the family moved to Phoenix, AZ, where Jim became principal of Christ Church Lutheran School, and son Christopher was born soon after the move. Daughter Theresa was born in 1959 in their new home in Scottsdale, AZ.

Doris’ marriage to Jim ended in divorce in 1976. She was employed at Land O’Sun Printers in Scottsdale, where she worked until she retired in the mid-1990s. She always considered the owners and employees of Land O’Sun as her family. And for many years and through the rest of her life, she found a second family at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church in Tempe, AZ, where she was a faithful member of the church choir, applied her considerable organizational skills to organizing the church’s music library, and expressed her creative skills in designing the seasonal announcement boards in the church hallway.

Doris is predeceased by her parents Ruth Marie and Jacob Schorzman, her stepmother Josephine Schorzman, her sister Margaret Ohlmann, and her ex-husband Jim Reith. She is survived by her children Stephanie Reith (Henry Werch, Portland, OR), Christopher Reith (Sandy Reith, Tucson, AZ), and Theresa Leyes (Scottsdale, AZ); grandchildren Lisa Reith and Sarah Reith Shirey (Maricopa, AZ), Rick, Jason, and Lance Leyes (Seattle area, WA), and Shauna Reith (Seattle, WA); nieces Cynthia Welsh, Alison Strubberg and Susan Nunn; nephews Paul Ohlmann and Timothy Ohlmann, as well as by several great-grandchildren, and many loyal and loving friends.

A Memorial Service will be held on Friday, March 8, 2024, at 10:30 a.m. at Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church, 1337 W. 11th St., Tempe, AZ. A light luncheon reception will follow at the church. The inurnment of ashes will be held at a later date at Green Acres Cemetery in Scottsdale.

For providing such patient, competent and compassionate care during Doris’ last years, we wish to thank the care team of Hospice of the Valley. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations in Doris’ memory to Beautiful Savior Lutheran Church’s Choir Fund.

Arrangements entrusted to Green Acres Mortuary & Cemetery, 401 N. Hayden Rd, Scottsdale, AZ.