Doris Mae Lane

Doris Mae Lane, 86, passed away on March 16, 2023, at Ogden Regional Hospital in Ogden, Utah.

Doris was born to Geneveria (née Mooney) and Frank "Red" Ward on May 11, 1936, in Sheridan, Wyoming. As a child of the Great Depression, Doris learned the necessity of being frugal from a young age and, for the rest of her life, she famously reused wrapping paper and tea bags. She was not frugal, however, when it came to her kindness and selfless spirit. To know Doris was to receive the gift of her love and attention.

The third of six children, Doris lived on a ranch in Wyoming until 1942 when her father, a sheepherder, moved the family north to Anaconda, Montana. It was in Anaconda that Doris met Frank Lane on a blind date; the two married less than a year later on June 21, 1954. Doris soon became the proud mother of four daughters: Melody Lane-Philpot (Steve), Stella Miller (Carl), Rosemarie Marengo (Mike), and Denise Lane. Of motherhood, Doris often said that she learned more from her daughters than she could ever teach them.

After starting a new job with the Union Pacific Railroad, Frank moved the family to northern Utah in 1965. For Doris, this also meant new opportunities: at the age of 29, she enrolled as a student at the University of Utah and earned a BS and a Master’s degree in Education. Embarking on a decades-long career in Utah schools, Doris taught 3^rd through 6^th grades but particularly loved teaching 5^th and 6^th grades. As an educator, Doris won many awards and consistently received some of the best ratings at the schools where she taught; she had a reputation, among both her colleagues and her students, for being an exacting and generous teacher, and parents often requested that their children be placed in her class. A fierce advocate for teachers, she acted as an officer in the teachers union and once even traveled to Washington, DC, as a union delegate. She didn’t limit her teaching to the classroom, either; a devout and lifelong Catholic, Doris also taught catechism during the 70s at Saint Rose of Lima in Layton, Utah.

In 1991, Doris and Frank began to summer in Alaska. They eventually built a home in Kenai where Doris loved hosting and entertaining guests, especially her grandchildren—Beckie Nandrup (Lars), Dustin Markham (Kim), Trista Markham, Melissa Manning (Broch), Chris Philpot (Sean), Michael Frearson, Daniel Philpot (Jessica), and Luke Lane-Lockard. These visits to the Kenai often involved fishing, clamming, and a glacier cruise, and no trip was complete without a photo op at the Salty Dawg in Homer.

Although they were putting down new roots in Alaska, Doris also loved traveling the world with Frank. Together they enjoyed experiences abroad in Belize, England, Russia, Jamaica, and Argentina, to name just a few of their many trips. She had traveled to every continent except for Africa, which she had planned on traveling to this coming April.

Doris was a profoundly creative person. A constant baker, she enjoyed decorating cakes for birthdays and weddings. She was also an accomplished seamstress, making countless suits and dresses, mending garments, and reupholstering furniture. But her most significant creative output was, without a doubt, her quilts. With a keen eye for shape and color, Doris created hundreds of quilts and wall hangings over the years, many blue ribbons among them. She was particularly proud of the wedding quilts she made not only for her grandchildren but also her greatgrandchildren—Haylie and Karlie Nandrup, Joshua Ojeda, Gavin and Emmalin Speicher, Kaydin and Watson Manning, Bradley Maycock, and Emma Possie.

As if being a baker, seamstress, and quilter wasn’t enough, Doris was also a writer. In 2016, she published a book—The Middle of Nowhere, USA & Other Stories—that details her upbringing on her family's Wyoming ranch. In one chapter, she recalls visiting her grandparents' farm nearby. She writes: "The thing my brothers and I enjoyed most about our Grandma was the stories she told us. She had a wealth of knowledge from which to draw upon for her stories. (...) Our Grandmother, like her mother before her, had become the storyteller. My brothers and I would wait in anxious anticipation, wondering which story she would tell us this time."

How lucky are we, Doris's family and friends, to have listened to her stories—and, luckier still, to have been part of them.

Doris is preceded in death by her parents; her brothers Bill, Jimmy, Dick, and Bob Ward; and her beloved grandson Luke. She is survived by her husband Frank, her sister Sandra Domitrovich (Patrick), four daughters, seven grandchildren, and nine greatgrandchildren.

For those who wish to donate to breast cancer research in Doris’ name in lieu of flowers please use the following link: http://mskcc.convio.net/goto/DorisMaeLane

Funeral Mass will celebrated on Friday, March 24, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church, 210 Chapel Street, Layton, Utah.  Friends may visit with family Thursday, March 23 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at Lindquist’s Layton Mortuary, 1867 No. Fairfield Rd., Layton, Utah.  A vigil with Rosary will be held at 7:30 p.m.

Interment, Lindquist’s Memorial Park at Layton.

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