Dorothy Ann Wilkinson was born Sept. 8, 1926, in Warrensburg, to Harold and Rosalie (Cheatham) Wilcoxon. She died July 15, 2021, in Warrensburg.

She attended schools in the Centerview area and graduated from Bates City High School in 1944. She also attended Central Missouri State College. She worked briefly at the front desk of the Warrensburg Star Journal and then at the Johnson County ASCS Office as a clerk typist. She also worked at the Quartermaster Depot in Kansas City, helping to process the belongings of the men and women killed during WWII.

On June 1, 1947, she was united in marriage to Keith Wilkinson. Dorothy said she first remembered Keith when they attended the same 1st grade class. Her parents were against the marriage, but Dorothy was never more sure of anything that she ever did, even though she cried and cried the night of the wedding because she knew her parents thought it was a mistake. Their wedding day was a rainy, rainy day, and guests had to be hauled to her parents' home through the mud by wagons. She always thought that maybe the rain and all the troubles the rain put onto her folks on her wedding day was somehow the payment for their being against the marriage. But, before her father passed away, he took her aside and told her that he was wrong about Keith and that she most certainly was right.

"We were just backward kids when we married. Keith didn't even mention anything about a honeymoon until the night before the actual wedding and how he picked Bethany, MO, to stop on our trip to Wisconsin, who knows?"

After Keith had served in the Navy in World War II,  he was recalled to serve during the Korean War, and they lived in San Francisco  while he was stationed there. They had bought a new car to go to San Francisco, but as Dorothy traveled out to California to join Keith, she and her small daughter Gayle were involved in a serious accident. The car, driven by a friend, went over an embankment and turned over five times, stopping right side up, but only two feet away from a 500-foot cliff. No one was wearing a seat belt. Dorothy said that she was scared that Keith would be mad about wrecking the brand new car that they had saved and saved for, but he was so thankful and overjoyed that she and Gayle were alive that never a word was said.

They returned to Missouri to Keith's job at Deitz Hill Quarries, living at Odessa where they farmed and raised their family. She was a helpmate to Keith, even driving a dump truck in a pinch. Once in a dump truck she slipped a gear on a steep hill and panicked but she managed to set the brakes and jumped out of the truck. Keith was following her. He jumped out and miraculously saved the day! At that point she declared that was the last time she was driving a truck, and it was. But this spunky lady continued to help in the trucking business by relentlessly collecting overdue bills, even in seedy, questionable places.

In return for her help at the quarry and driving trucks, Keith accidentally hit her in the head with a foul ball and broke her glasses at one of his baseball games. That was a moment of renown for the newlyweds.

Dorothy was a homemaker and gave piano lessons in her home for many, many years, which meant that her family had many, many casseroles for supper. She loved and played classical music. She was an excellent seamstress and made many pieces of clothing for her family, including coats. She also did embroidery work and many a night she worked into the night on the sewing machine. She loved to set a pretty table and enjoyed arranging and decorating her home. She had the ability to be creative in revamping and recycling items into useful, attractive objects. Dorothy had to fry chicken and can tomatoes in her hot, hot kitchen without air-conditioning. And she could make excellent gravy out of anything.

She read Egermeier's Bible stories to her children each night, and loved Billy Graham crusades. Church attendance was a must, and she was the Mt. Tabor pianist for years. Dorothy would reach out to folks and neighbors offering to take kids to church and Bible School.

She loved garage sales and searching for bargains at R&H Salvage.  She loved Russell Stover candies and took a lot of teasing for secretly eating a whole box that was in the freezer, one at a time, as she was in the basement doing laundry on her old wringer washing machine.

She loved "The Sound of Music," and wrote poetry. She enjoyed words and numbers, and clipped out meaningful messages to share. She was a stickler for a clean house, and she taught her children discipline and work ethic by involving them daily in gardening, cleaning, painting fences, and churning butter. "Chores before play."

She also taught her grandchildren that they had to take a nap by pinning her "heavy" arms across the chests of six grandchildren at a time.

She and Keith were members of the Greatest Generation ... patriotic, hard workers, providers, doers. They took care of their own and others. She and Keith had nothing to start with and in later years were so thankful to God for their successes. She had goals of perfection and parameters for herself and for her family to be the best they could be. Dorothy was very sensitive, intuitive and sentimental.

In 1985 they purchased Keystone Quarry in Warrensburg and moved to Warrensburg. Dorothy worked with Keith at the quarry handling bookkeeping and running the scalehouse.

She was a longtime member of the Mt. Tabor Methodist Church near Odessa. She more recently attended the Nazarene Church in Warrensburg. Dorothy was loyal to her family, dedicated to students and friends and church. She didn't broadcast her faith in spoken prayers  but always promoted Biblical principles. Through Aunt Irene's invitation, Dorothy was passionate about having her entire family attend the Raytown Baptist Christmas pageants each year. Following the pageant, she and Keith would treat the entire family to a buffet dinner.

She enjoyed receiving cards and she kept every one. She cared deeply for each family member and was very generous with gifts and in remembering special occasions. She enjoyed family gatherings. Grandkids always knew they were loved, love that never would stop. But she and Keith would also let them know they needed to behave in a way honorable to God and to their family values and reputation.

Dorothy recently said that her life has been a roller coaster, with its many ups and downs. She liked the colors black and white and also liked "things" to be black and white. She wanted to know the "plan" ahead of time ... no last minute funny business!

Until the last few months of her life, she was reluctant to accept help getting up and down and around. She didn't want people to see her with a walker and would almost fight you off if you tried to help her.

Sadly, due to COVID, she was unable to be with her family as much as she wished to be during the last year or so of her life, but she did enjoy phone calls, her flowers and watching the birds. Dorothy enjoyed her many cousins and they were a special part of her life.

Her granddaughter Melody said the Dorothy told her to "always make yourself up when you go out because you never know who you might meet." And Dorothy followed that advice by wearing red lipstick and looking pretty herself.

Here are some of her favorite sayings: "This is just the pits." "Come and visit me when you can and when you can't." "We're going to start charging for taking all these photos."

Preceding her in death were her husband, Keith, in 2008; and her parents.

Survivors include her children, Gayle (Tim) Von Engeln of Boonville, Darryl (Elizabeth) Wilkinson of Gallatin, and Robyn (Steve) Stoppelman of Pleasant Hill. Additional survivors include 10 grandchildren, Jonathan (Megan) Von Engeln of Blue Springs; Melody (David) Kleinsorge of Laddonia; Aaron (Lyndley) Von Engeln, Kansas City, Andrea (Dallas) Lockridge of Cameron; Jill (Neal) Steward of Cameron; Scott (Michelle) Wilkinson of Cameron, Brett (Kelsie) Wilkinson of Merriam, KS, Lacey (Carson) LaLonde of Pleasant Hill, Lee (Nicole) Stoppelman of Lee's Summit, and Paige (Sam) Harvey of Raymore; and 20 great-grandchildren, Evelyn, Lillian, Audrey and Meredith Von Engeln, Rosalie and John Kleinsorge, Calvin and Hazel Von Engeln, Sydney, Gage and Garrett Lockridge, Willa, Sylvia and Claire Steward, Tucker, Emerson and Tate Wilkinson, Bonnie and Fenton LaLonde, and Harrison Harvey; one sister-in-law, Ernestine Westerhold of Centerview; one niece, Cindy Lee, and two nephews, Kevin Westerhold and Donnie Wilkinson.

Memorial contributions may be made to the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, MO, or the Show Me Christian Home in La Monte, MO, in care of the funeral home.

Pall bearers will be her grandsons, Jonathan Von Engeln, Aaron Von Engeln, Scott Wilkinson, Brett Wilkinson, and Lee Stoppelman.