Dorothy LeMay Allison, avid reader, writer
Dorothy LeMay Allison was born July 4, 1929, to James and Miriam LeMay in Atlanta, Ga., and passed away Thursday, Dec. 23, 2021.
When she was 2 years old, her family moved to the Washington, D.C. area and settled in Bethesda, Md. She attended Bethesda Elementary School, Leland Junior High School, and Bethesda Chevy Chase High School. In her high school years, she was a class officer each year and selected for the National Honor Society; she was the class salutatorian at her graduation in 1947. She met her future husband, Horatio Allison, when they were in their last year of junior high school. She attended the University of Maryland and was a member of the Kappa Delta Sorority. She married her high school sweetheart on Dec. 18, 1948, at the Bethesda Presbyterian Church, Bethesda.
She worked for the National Institutes of Health in the Office of the NIH director in the information and public relations area from 1949-62 when their first child was born. After that, she assisted when needed at her husband’s structural engineering office. They lived in the Luxmanor and North Bethesda (Md.) areas until 1988 when Horatio retired and they moved to their beach house in South Bethany, where they lived while Horatio designed and built a retirement home for them. In 1990, they moved into that home on the water in the community of Linn Woods between Bethany Beach and Dagsboro. They also had a winter home in the Ventura Country Club in Orlando, Fla. Her husband preceded her in death in 1998 when they had been married for 50 years.
She was an avid reader, loved to write and prepared a 200-page written story of her life with Horatio which filled 12 scrapbooks with pictures and memories. She and her husband were interested in and collected early English and American antiques for the Williamsburg-style houses that Horatio designed and built for their homes. She enjoyed traveling with him to search for antiques and also all of the many trips that they took together. She was also interested in needlework and enjoyed making things for their home and gifts for their friends and family. She had a lifetime love for her pairs of Siamese cats.
She is survived by her son, James Allison and his wife Kimberly of Frankford; her daughter, Jennifer Craig and her fiancé William Blalock of Satellite Beach, Fla.; three grandchildren, Margaret LeMay Allison, Kealey Clear Allison, and Tanner James Craig; and nine nephews and one niece.
She will be buried beside her husband in the churchyard of St. Georges Church in Clarksville at 1 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 11. A continued celebration of Dorothy's life will be held in the heated outdoors of Good Earth Market, 31806 Good Earth Lane, Ocean View.
Online condolences may be sent by visiting melsonfuneralservices.com.
