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Dorothy Marie Rode was born November 29, 1931 to Esther Caroline (Pearson) and Arthur Charles Anderson in Burlington Iowa. The family escaped the cold to San Antonio and she graduated from Jefferson High School in 1948. At Texas Lutheran College she met divinity student Elias Henry Rode in a supper-and-devotion group, and portrayed his daughter in a campus theater production. They married at Grace Lutheran Church in 1954 and immediately moved to Dubuque Iowa where she was known as “the girl from Texas”, working at John Deere to support Elias through Wartburg Seminary.
As the wife of a pastor, she ministered to their congregations in Paige, Dime Box, Houston, San Antonio, and Jourdanton. Music, entertainment and hospitality were her calling. Dorothy sang alto in all her church choirs and sang hymns as lullabies to her daughters. She played the organ where needed. She always reached out to visitors and new people in the church, welcoming and encouraging them to become involved. She would pop up in a skit at PTA or church picnic. In Jourdanton they joined a square-dance club, even though her leg had been recently amputated from her first bout of cancer. Her last stage role was in Steel Magnolias at Zion, but she regaled caregivers, friends and family with her quick wit, anecdotes and stories her entire life, despite her dementia.
An accomplished sewist and fiber artist, Dorothy taught her daughters to sew, knit and crochet. She was eager to try all kinds of crafts - crewel embroidery, palette knife painting, feather flowers, plaster figures, a pillbox hat, slipcovers for the couch. She was also a voracious reader, investing in a speed reading kit which benefitted the whole family. She and Elias served as reading tutors in the local school. She still read the daily newspaper and worked the crossword puzzle until her last days.
They reared two daughters in Houston and San Antonio, and partnered with Elias caring for the family ranch in Cherry Spring for over 40 years. They retired to San Antonio and then Boerne until his death in 2018. Her earthly life ended March 13, age 92, in her fourth bout with cancer.
Dorothy is preceded in death by her parents, husband, brother Bill (Martha) Anderson, sister Carolyn (Jack) Landrud, nephew Robert Anderson, and all her sisters- and brothers-in-law.
She is survived by daughters Julie Rode-Hickey (Gary Hickey), Sarah (Jeff) Nichols, granddaughters Dylan Hickey McWhorter (Sean McWhorter), Elizabeth (Kevin) Clink and Ellis Hickey, great-grands Evan Marie and Clara Jane McWhorter, and Nolan Robertson Clink; nieces and nephews Ron (Linda) Anderson, John (Barbara) Anderson, Carole Anderson, Dana (Bob) Bowers, Karen "Koko" (Chris) Dreschler, Lisa (Tom) Lynham, Roland (Brenda) Rode, Ann (Roy) Feller, Nathan (Melissa) Usener, Alan (Alice) Werchan, many great-nieces and nephews, and a multitude of lifelong friends.
Thanks to the staff of Cibolo House Memory Care at Morningside Ministries in Boerne for their loving care for nearly six years.
Memorials may be made to Zion Lutheran Church of San Antonio, Cibolo House Staff gift fund, the American Cancer Society or the Parkinsons Foundation.
Services were held on Thursday, April 4.
We remember Dorothy's family and friends in our prayers and trust that the promise of the Resurrection is true and sure.
In Christ,
Bishop Sue Briner
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