March 12, 1921- February 1, 2021
Dorothy Della Zitnak, a lifelong resident of Fairdealing, Missouri, on Monday February 1, 2021 at 1:47 p.m., finally gave up to God’s beckoning her to climb up the stairs to Heaven to meet her loved ones waiting at the top of the stairs for her to come be with them where there would be no more sorrow or pain.
Dorothy had tried so hard to wait until after her 100th birthday on March 12, 2021, but the pain in her heart and legs and failing hope and inability of getting up and walking on her own again had become unbearable. She often laughed and said she wanted to be a “pest” but not a “burden”.
Dorothy was born on March 12, 1921 at home in Fairdealing. She was the only child of George Harrison Douglas and Lillie Gertrude Ormsby Douglas. She grew up on a farm and her first means of travel was either by foot or horse and wagon. She attended the one room Ormsby School through most of the eighth grade deciding she had learned enough just before graduation. As a young girl, social events meant walking down a country dirt road with the neighborhood kids to Springhill Missionary Baptist Church where she was a member. She would never have dreamed that years later she would have a granddaughter, Ronda Renee Wiley Thomas and that same little country church would have a Christian school named Springhill School of Hope where her granddaughter would teach kindergarten.
At nineteen, on June 27, 1940, Dorothy Married Mike Zitnak at the Courthouse in Doniphan, Missouri. They had four children Barbara Gayle, Jerry Dale, Connie Fay and Paula Jean. Paula Jean died at birth on May 3, 1948. All her children were born at home. Dorothy’s husband, Mike died suddenly of a heart attach on February 11, 1967. Dorothy never remarried. Her beloved son, Jerry died on January 18, 1996, of pancreatic cancer.
When her children were young, Dorothy transferred her church membership to Little Bethel Missionary Baptist Church where other family members attended. After her daughter, Connie, got married, Dorothy went to he Naylor Pentecostal Church at Naylor, Missouri, with Connie and her family.
Dorothy was always a homemaker who devoted her entire life to her family. She was a loving “Mama” to her children and “Mamaw” to her granddaughter and great-grandson and great-granddaughter as well as others who loved her. She loved to read, especially Rev. Billy Graham’s books which she collected. She enjoyed working in the yard with her flowers of all kinds which she planted all around the yard. She mowed the grass and trimmed the hedge as long as she was able to. She liked to write, sew, and embroider until the arthritis in her hands and the macular degeneration in her eyes got so bad she could no longer do so. Dorothy loved to go see old and new cemeteries, and she never failed to put flowers on the graves of her loved ones. Later on in life, she often said she had more friends in the cemeteries than she did still living. Dorothy loved cats and dogs and was sometimes called ”the cat lady” because she had lots of cats which she took good care of. She raised one cat in the house that was abandoned by its mother. That little kitten named Trixie, became her constant companion and someone to love and talk to the last ten years as they would today call a support animal. Trixie was just another member of the family who she worried about leaving when she died.
Dorothy is survived by her two daughters, Barbara Gayle Zitnak Randolph of Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and Connie Fay Zitnak Wiley of Fairdealing; her granddaughter, Ronda Renee Wiley Thomas; great-grandson, Shiloh Pleas Thomas; great-granddaughter, Reanna Renee Thomas, all of Fairdealing and her daughter-in-law, Charlotte Rogers Zitnak of Lampe, Missouri.
Also surviving are Carl and Vianna Wiley and their daughter, Carla Wiley Littrell and her husband, Elmer. Carla thought of Dorothy as Mamaw too. Tim Slayton was like a son to her and the Swafford family, Tillman and Janath and T.G., Merissa and Becky also became her family. She was Aunt Dorothy to Terry Durham Bounds and many other relatives and friends through marriage too numerous to mention but loved.
Dorothy was preceded in death by her parents, George Harrison Douglas and Lillie Gertrude Ormsby Douglas; her husband, Mike Zitnak; her son Jerry Dale Zitnak and her baby daughter, Paula Jean; sons-in-law, Robert ‘Bob’ Randolph and Ronnie Eugene Wiley; grandson-in-law, Ralph Pleas Thomas and many other relatives and friends who went on before her but were never forgotten and who were deeply missed every day.
Visitation for Dorothy will begin at 6 p.m. Thursday, February 4 at the Naylor Pentecostal Church in Naylor, Missouri. The funeral service will be at 2 p.m. Friday, February 5 at the Naylor Pentecostal Church with Rev Donnie Fowler officiating. Burial will follow in the Fairdealing Cemetery at Fairdealing. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the family and Fowler and Sons Funeral Home, who is in charge of services, request masks be worn for everyone’s safety.