MURDOCK, Dorris 1927-2011

MURDOCK, BLOUGH

Posted By: Tammy (email)
Date: 5/18/2021 at 20:33:53

Dorris Murdock passed away on June 20, 2011 after a long bout with cancer. She is survived by four children, Susan, Kim, Lee and Lynn, ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

Dorris was born August 3, 1927 in North Carolina to John and Blanche Murdock and was preceded in death by two sisters, Betty Murdock and Janelle Kewatt. She grew up in Iowa and attended a country school, Melrose #2. She graduated from McPherson College in Kansas in 1948.

She married Marvin Blough in 1948 and went with him to Nigeria, West Africa, with the Church of the Brethren. Two of the children were born there.

Dorris was a writer, saying, "Writing is the hardest work I ever do and the most fun." She had numerous magazine articles published as well as eight books. "Journey Into the Light" chronicled her own crisis of divorce, and "Storm of the Soul" was her story of the years in Nigeria. In her last years she lived in Idaho City where she wrote two novels about the ghosts of Idaho City.

She was a teacher in public schools in the States as well as teaching her own children at home in Nigeria. She also taught African women classes on health and Bible study.

Her last years were spent in Idaho City where she ran the Knotty Pine Bed and Breakfast and was part of Idaho City activities as long as possible.

Dorris was always involved in social movements such as education, politics, the environment, government and those less fortunate, always optimistic about the future. Her greatest joy was her children, and her greatest stress was her children. She would say that she was able to survive as she did was because she lived her motto, "Peace is not needing to know what is going to happen next."

--The Idaho Statesman (Boise, Idaho), 23 June 2011