« One Dares Call It Treason. | Main | Me? I'm a "wartime" law professor. What sort of a "wartime" job do you hold? »
July 7, 2005
This Kind of Obituary Takes Guts ... Even If You're Dead.
ON JUNE 3, 2005 at 10:45 p.m. in Memphis, Tennessee, Dorothy Gibson Cully, 86, died peacefully, while in the loving care of her two favorite children, Barbara and David. All of her breath leaked out.I'm having just a little trouble with the "never judged others or their shortcomings" part.The mother of four children, grandmother to 11, great-grandmother to nine, devoted wife for 56 years to the late Ralph Chester Cully and a true friend to many, Dot had been active as a volunteer in the Catholic Church and other community charities for much of the past 25 years.
She was born the second child of six in 1919 as Frances Dorothy Gibson, daughter to Kathleen Heard Gibson and Calvin Hooper Gibson, an inventor best known as the first person since the Middle Ages to calculate the arcane lead-to-gold formula. Unable to actually prove this complex theory scientifically, and frustrated by the cruel conspiracy of the so-called "scientific community" working against his efforts, he ultimately stuck his head in a heated gas oven with a golden delicious apple propped in his mouth. Miraculously, the apple was saved for the evening dessert. Calvin was not.
Native Marylanders and long time Baltimore, Kent Island and Ocean City residents, Ralph and Dot later resided in Lakeland, Florida and Virginia Beach, Virginia. Several years after Ralph's death, Dot moved to Raleigh in 2001, where she lived with her son, David.
At the time of her death, Dot was visiting her daughter, Carol in Memphis. Carol and her husband, Ron, away from home attending a "very important conference" at a posh Florida resort, rushed home 10 days later after learning of the death. Dot's other children, dutifully at their mother's side helping with the normal last minute arrangements - hospice notification, funeral parlor notice, revising the last will, etc. - happily picked up the considerable slack of the absent former heiress.Dot is warmly remembered as a generous, spiritually strong, resourceful, tolerant and smart woman, who was always ready to help and never judged others or their shortcomings. Dot always found time to knit sweaters, sew quilts and send written notes to the family children, all while working a full time job, volunteering as Girl Scout leader and donating considerable time to local charities and the neighborhood Catholic Church.
Dot graduated from Eastern High School at 15, worked in Baltimore full time from 1934 to 1979, beginning as a factory worker at Cross & Blackwell and retiring after 30 years as property manager and controller for a Baltimore conglomerate, Housing Engineering Company, all while raising four children, two of who are fairly normal.
An Irishwoman proud of and curious about her heritage, she was a voracious reader of historical novels, particularly those about the glories and trials of Ireland. Dot also loved to travel, her favorite destination being Eire's auld sod, where she dreamed of the magic, mystery and legend of the Emerald Isle.Dot Cully is survived by her sisters, Ginny Torrico in Virginia, Marian Lee in Florida and Eileen Adams in Baltimore; her brother, Russell Gibson of Fallston, Maryland; her children, Barbara Frost of Ocean City, Maryland, Carol Meroney of Memphis, Tennessee, David Cully of Raleigh, North Carolina and Stephen Cully of Baltimore, Maryland.
Contributions to the Wake County (NC) Hospice Services are welcomed.
Opinions about the details of this obit are not, since Mom would have liked it this way.
Posted by Eric at July 7, 2005 9:15 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.isthatlegal.org/cgi-bin/mt33/mt-tb.cgi/245.
Comments
a photocopy of the obit from the N&O was being passed around my office this morning, I thought it was a hoax at first ...
Posted by: Gerry at July 7, 2005 10:49 PM
I love it.
Posted by: bitchphd at July 7, 2005 11:04 PM
Hey it's the N&O, man. I'm surprised they didn't blame George Bush and Global Warming on the woman's death. I'm sure they will somehow connect it to the fact the London Terror bombers are misunderstood children, as well. .........hey, anyone who even opens and N&O is a freakin' moron. Simple. Why not just read the much more honest Socialist Workers Daily?
Posted by: Fred Zepplin at July 8, 2005 4:38 PM
hey Fred Zep,
obits like that in the N&O are written and paid for by the family, don't blame the N&O reporters or editorial board (obits are big moneymakers for dailies, they pulled in a load of cash on this one)
Posted by: Gerry at July 9, 2005 9:45 AM
Loved the part about Carol "rushing" home 10 days later--- and the family happily picking up the slack left by the"former heiress".
Posted by: Lou at August 5, 2005 12:31 PM
Fred - she wrote that to make uptight people like you whine about the N&O. It's all part of anongoing plot by the sinister liberal cabal. We've got you just where we want you! muwhohahahaha!
PS - Led Zeppelin is on our side too....
Posted by: Ras J at November 16, 2005 11:39 AM
I think that this family should be ashamed of posting this in an obituary! 6 months after this was posted this family brought charges against the husband of the "former heiress" for a crime he "supposedly" commited 32 years ago when he lived in Maryland. Because they knew there was no statute of limitations there. This is so wrong to bring a very good woman's death in the middle of all their family feuding! SHAME ON YOU!!!
Posted by: DISGUSTED at May 5, 2006 11:01 AM