She raised four daughters and an army of admirers in education, journalism and politics.
Dorothy Lee Harrison Moore was more likely known as just “Dot” to her friends and family. She was a tiny woman – “no bigger than a dot” a high school classmate once dubbed her, and it stuck – but when she died over Christmas she left behind a huge footprint in the lives of those who knew and loved her.
Dot Moore lived the last half century of her 87 years in Hays and Caldwell counties, after being born and raised in Frost, Texas. She taught history and government at Lockhart High School in the 1960s and early 1970s. Later she managed the trade books section of Colloquium Books in San Marcos for many years, then moonlighted in retirement as a copy editor at the Hays Free Press while living near Mountain City, between Buda and Kyle. Early in her career, before “liberated” women were commonplace, worked as an aide in the Texas Legislature and then earned a master’s degree.
Much of Ms. Moore’s adult life was spent on a farm in Maxwell, near the Hays-Caldwell line, where she accomplished her proudest work: the rearing of four daughters, to whom she was a devoted mother. For nearly 50 years she was married to John L. Moore, who taught agriculture at Southwest Texas State College, now Texas State University. Before teaching at Southwest Texas, John Moore worked for the Soil Conservation Service and the family lived in a small towns and rural areas across the state, birthing a child in four different counties.
John and Dot grew up together in Frost. Her father was superintendent of schools and a hero to both. John’s father once helped save a pre-school Dot during a devastating tornado. The kids grew up as friends but didn’t date until, after Dot graduated high school in 1941, they began corresponding while he served in the Pacific during World War II. After the war they courted, marrying in 1947.
Her friends knew her as a life-long advocate of quality education, freedom of speech and religion, civic engagement, and equality under the law. Diminutive, somewhat introverted, she could be fiercely outspoken in support of justice as she saw it, using skills honed on the Frost debate team. She rarely – if ever – backed down to mere popular opinion. A keeper of the highest ethical standards, she both inspired and admonished her friends and family to follow her lead. She was proud to have voted in every election since she was old enough to cast a ballot and had a Vote Democrat sign on her wall and a Proud to be a Democrat sticker on her door when she died.
She died at home in Maxwell, under care provided by Hope Hospice, surrounded by her daughters, having said goodbye, two days before Christmas. In her final years, she led by example one last time, managing a difficult illness with a mixture of grace and stubbornness. The grace was made possible in part by loving care provided by Rosa Resendez and Vicky Ybarra.
Ms. Moore is survived by her family: Kay Moore and Fred Edmiston of San Marcos; Anne and George Grant of Austin, and their sons, Clayton and Drew Grant; Jane Moore of Maxwell, and friend and former husband Kenny Scheffer; and Jill Moore of Bay City. She is also survived by her brother Doug Harrison and wife Kay, of Baton Rouge, their children Carol and Steve, and their families.
The family plans a small memorial service for family and close friends Saturday, January 14, at the Maxwell Ebenezer Lutheran Church Education Building at 11 a.m. In lieu of flowers the family asks memorial donations be made to the Frost High School Library, the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity, a hospice organization, or the charity of your choice.
