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Obituary for Dorothy A. Pitts Clewett
Dorothy A. Pitts Clewett (nee Haynes) Nov. 26, 1910 - Dec. 20, 2009 died at home in Brookings, Oregon. As a very young child, in Tacoma, Washington, she recalled running two blocks over to see that new marvel, the automobile; 55years later, she was able to watch men step onto the moon. After her father, Herbert Haynes, and mother, Kathryn divorced in 1915 Dorothy remained in Tacoma, living in her Grandmother Haynes's house with her sister Leola, and cousin, Dale. Dorothy attended elementary and high school in Tacoma, graduated at 17, and immediately enrolled in business college. A year later she moved to Oakland to live with her mother but always remained very close to her sister. During the Depression years and World War II Dorothy worked her way from the secretarial pool to executive secretary for the manager of the Oldsmobile distributorship. In the late 1930's Dorothy met her future husband, Myrl Pitts, a native San Franciscan, at a party to which she was invited by a coworker. Dorothy and Myrl saw each other for a year or more, became engaged, but decided to delay marriage until the end of WWII. Myrl and Dorothy married in early 1946; he returned to his career as an insurance broker and she quit her job to become a wife and, two years later, a mother. Myrl's job moved the family up and down the West Coast, until they settled in east Whittier, California, in 1955. There they purchased a home and finished raising their only child, Michael. Dorothy was one of the founding members of Las Damas of Sungold and remained very active in the women's club for the next 37 years, including a term as President. Dorothy and Myrl enjoyed playing contract, then duplicate, bridge and spent many evenings at cards with their friends. After Myrl's death in late 1978, Dorothy and a friend, Betty Betzold, became serious about duplicate bridge and started playing competitively (and successfully) to acquire their Master's points. Dorothy later remarried to Glenford Clewett, but their marriage lasted only a few years due to Glen's death. In 1993 Dorothy moved into Driftwood Estates, in Harbor, Oregon. She promptly joined two different groups of bridge players to keep herself occupied. In her later years, her memory began to fail and she moved into an assisted living home until Michael and his wife, Marihelen, were able to take her into their home to care for her properly. During this time the only thing that truly made an impression on her were the visits of her grandson, Jonathan Pitts-Campbell, from Seattle. Dorothy passed her last years with diminishing awareness of her surroundings, but usually seeming to realize that she was surrounded by her family. Dorothy's ashes were placed next to her husband, Myrl, in Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.
