Near the end of World War II a young Navy Seabee from northern Alabama stationed on the West Coast traveled to a small German farming community inland an hour or so from San Francisco to attend a USO dance. His buddy had told him the prettiest girls in California lived in Lodi. Across the room he spotted Doris Riffel, who, born into an agrarian Lutheran heritage in Kansas, had moved to California ten years prior with her brother and her mother and father, the latter who would eventually become the manager of The Lodi Winery. For the first seven years of their marriage, they remained in Lodi as they raised their son among the grape vineyards, the roses her mother cultivated, and the productive soil of the San Joaquin Valley, and he furthered his trade as an ironworker. They left her parents in the early 1950s to settle back among his family in Alabama, start a construction company, and soon a daughter joined them. She devoted her life to her children, instilling in them the work ethic and moral compass she shared with her husband of truth, fairness, compassion, and tolerance, and the understanding that using the gifts and talents they’d been given was not optional. The congregates of Wood Avenue Church of Christ were the extended family with whom she, for 16 years a widow, worshipped and to whom she ministered when they were ailing. She was blessed by the guidance Wood Avenue preachers Lamar Plunkett, David Sain, and Kenneth Davis provided her as she grew in the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of her faith.
Doris Moore, 87, born Nov. 2, 1926, in Herington, Kansas, died on Friday evening, Aug. 23, 2014, at Harbert Hills Academy Nursing Home in Savannah, Tennessee, where she’d been residing since 2006. The staff and students of her home in the woods cared for her with the love, kindness, humor, and uncompromised quality that is possible from those who have followed their spiritual calling. Her children and grandchildren are eternally grateful.
She was preceded in death by her parents, Clarence and Selma Riffel, her husband, John Moore; her brother, Delbert Riffel, and her son-in-law, Mel Newman.
She is survived by her son and daughter-in- law, Dr. Thomas Moore and Lynn (Durham), and daughter, Debra Newman, all of Florence; grandchildren, Erik Moore and wife, Valerie, Gainsville, Georgia, Alicia Bjorgen and husband, Shawn, Anchorage, Alaska, Andrea Hubbard and husband, Eric, Cheswick, Pennsylvania, Amy Moore, Anderson, South Carolina, and friend Joseph Witty, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Rachel Newman and friend Kevin Coons, Bellflower, California, and John Newman and fiancée, Shekinah LaVelle, Louisville, Kentucky; great-grandchildren, Gabriel Moore, Camden and Dawson Bjorgen, Gavin and Vivian Hubbard; and numerous nieces and nephews.
The memorial service for Doris Moore will be at 2 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 29, 2014, at Wood Avenue Church of Christ, Florence, Alabama, preceded by visitation at 1:15 p.m. Her nephew, Brian Moore, will be officiating. A graveside observance for family and friends will be at 4 p.m. at Belgreen Baptist Church Cemetery in Franklin County. Her family expresses gratitude to the emergency medical staff at Hardin County Medical Center and the doctors, residents, and nurses in the cardiac care unit and the palliative care team at Vanderbilt University Hospital who provided seamless, compassionate medical care for our mother and end of life guidance for our family. We extend as well our appreciation to the staff of Unity Hospice who joined the care team just prior to her passing.
In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Harbert Hills Academy Nursing Home, 3575 Lonesome Pine Rd., Savannah, Tennessee 38372.
