Joyce Ann (Dodds) Doolittle 1929 - 2018

DODDS, DOOLITTLE, HAVERLY, KOOKER, FURMAN, BRUBAKER

Posted By: Linda H Meyers (email)
Date: 5/17/2021 at 16:53:13

Obituary for Joyce Ann Doolittle
Joyce Ann Doolittle, 89, of Story City passed away Sunday, March 18 at Bethany Manor in Story City.
Joyce was born on January 1, 1929 in Ames, Iowa, the daughter of Galen and Ardis (Haverly) Dodds. She grew up on the family farm east of Gilbert, attending Gilbert Consolidated School, graduating salutatorian with the class of 1946. On May 5, 1948, Joyce married her classmate, Dennis Doolittle, at the Little Brown Church in Nashua, IA. On March 8, 1966, their only child, Janine Joyce, was born.
After graduation, Joyce drew bridge blueprints at the Iowa Highway Commission (DOT) in Ames, a job she thoroughly enjoyed because it was precise work entailing numbers and accuracy. She and Dennis moved to the farm south of Stanhope in 1954, and she worked for a short time at Gene’s Grocery Store in Stanhope. She was a partner in the livestock and grain operation with Dennis, doing the bookwork and detail work. She enjoyed working outside when Dennis needed her and she was in charge of making the manicured farm lawn look its best. Joyce moved to town after Dennis passed away in 1990.
Her passion was genealogy, and she spent countless hours researching and documenting the Dodds and Doolittle family histories. She and Janine would take day trips to cemeteries or libraries to do research, always managing to find a place or two to eat along the way. Joyce and Janine were inseparable, doing nearly everything together after Dennis’s passing.
Joyce is survived by her daughter Janine and her husband Rick Kooker of Ellsworth, and her brother, John and his wife Mary Dodds of Ames. She is also survived by several nieces and nephews, Mike Dodds, Jeff Dodds (Lisa), and Melinda (Dodds) Mingus (Bob); Susan (Doolittle) Larson, Barbara (Brubaker) Furman (Mike), and John Brubaker; step grandsons, Devin (Sky) and Jacob Kooker, and step grandson, Ashton Kooker. She is also survived by former son-in-law, John Lamb. She was preceded in death by her husband Dennis in February 1990, her parents, and her sister, Mary Lou in childhood, as well as her brother-in-law Delano Doolittle, and her sister-in-law, Shirley (Doolittle) Brubaker.
In lieu of flowers a memorial has been established in his name.