Day 77 - In Memory of Doris Lynette Kennedy Paris

I sat next to my mother for almost three weeks as she struggled until last Tuesday when she took her last breath. Here is a glimpse of her life.

 1940

1944

                                                                                                         

1944

Feb 15, 2013

Doris Lynette Paris joined the cloud of saints on Tuesday, February 19, 2013.  She was born on Jan 12, 1923, in Glennville, GA in Tattnall County, the daughter of Ollie Ryals Kennedy and Henry Grady Kennedy and descendant of Simon Smith, a Revolutionary soldier from North Carolina and Tattnall County, GA.

She grew up in Akron, OH where her family moved after the death of her father when she was three years old. A child of the Great Depression and a brilliant student, she longed for college but received no support from her family so she settled for secretarial school. While living in Rome, GA with an aunt she met her future husband, Grady Vaughan Paris.

Vaughan was drafted into the Army and she moved to Washington D.C. where she worked as a secretary for William Y. Elliott, vice president of the War Production Board. While Vaughan was stationed in Oregon for the remainder of his basic training they decided to marry when his unit moved to California, anticipating an imminent departure for combat. Doris at the age of twenty undertook the daunting adventure to travel alone to Vaughan’s next deployment in California where they planed to marry only to discover his army unit was deployed suddenly elsewhere. They finally married in Rome, GA on Nov. 24 1943, by Rev. Arthur Rich of Fifth Avenue Baptist Church.

After Vaughan returned from Germany where he had served as a decorated officer in the Army Infantry as forward observer for artillery they resided in Akron, OH until the birth of their first son, Henry Grady. They moved back to Rome, GA where they lived a full life raising their two sons, Mark Vaughan and Henry Grady.

She and Vaughan were active in the local square dance group, the Western Promenaders. Doris appeared in a number of roles with the Rome Little Theater, and sang with Vaughan in the Rome Symphony Chorus. She taught the teenage woman’s Sunday School class and with her beautiful four-octave range was director of and sang in the choir of Fifth Avenue Baptist Church for many years. She and Vaughan volunteered at Floyd Hospital and she was also an avid seamstress.

Doris worked in Rome for 20 years as secretary to the plant accountant of the Rome plant of Celanese Corp, taking early retirement upon its closure about the same time Vaughan retired from the Post Office. During the first twenty-five years after retirement they traveled for several months at a time almost every year all over the United States, Canada and Mexico in an Airstream trailer or motor home, often in convoy with her older sister and brother-in-law, and on occasion joined by one or both sons and grandsons. She found great joy recounting all these life experiences through the final days of her death.

Doris and Vaughan first worshipped in Vaughan’s family church, Fifth Avenue Baptist then Second Baptist Church in Rome. After Vaughan’s death she found a warm home among many friends at First Christian Church of Rome where she has been a beloved member ever since.

She is survived her beloved sister and brother-in-law Beatrice and Theodore Patterson of Tucson, AZ, their daughter Lynette and her children and grandchildren; another brother Eugene Hanson and his family of Akron, OH; brother-in law and his wife, Thomas S. and Micki Medlock, Jr, and as well as numerous nephews and nieces of Vaughan’s family that she loved dearly; her two sons, Mark Vaughan and wife Leah Primm Paris of Rome, GA; Henry Grady and wife Terry Rushing Paris of Chattanooga, TN Henry’s two sons Thomas Reid of Atlanta, and Russell Keith of Arlington, VA and their mother, Sandra Fenton of Chattanooga, TN.

A Celebration of Life will be held Sunday, February 24, 2013, at 3:00 P.M. at the First Christian Church of Rome with Rev. Horace Stewart and Rev. Dr. LeBron McBride officiating. She will be interred at Oaknoll in Rome GA with Vaughan.

We all love you mother. Goodbye until we meet again.

In lieu of flowers the family respectfully requests memorial contributions be made to the First Christian Church of Rome in Mrs. Paris’ memory 209 East Second Avenue, Rome, GA 30161-3147.

Please join Mrs. Paris’ family in honoring her life by visiting www.millerandrichardsfuneralhome.com to post tributes and share memories.