Dorothy (Stuhler) Worden died peacefully on Sept. 8, 2016, at Windemere Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Oak Bluffs. She was 94.
Dorothy was born in Edgartown to John and Miriam (Earle) Stuhler. She attended No. 108 public grade school on Long Island, N.Y., and graduated from Edgartown High School. Dorothy graduated from Wilfred Academy in New York City and returned to the Island as a hairdresser, working for Ruth Wamsley in Oak Bluffs before getting married to Frederick Hudson “Huddy” Worden on April 5, 1942.
She was homemaker and mother to their five children, who were raised on Main Street, Edgartown. Her first years of married life were spent as matron at Dukes County Jail. Ten years later, the family moved two houses up Main Street to the Crowell homestead. Many summer days Dorothy could be seen driving the family “limo” to Bend-in-the-Road Beach with her five kids on board, and often the family dog, Jumbo, a Newfoundland.
When the children were older, she took a number of part-time jobs as bookkeeper, house maid, and clerk to occupy herself, though her family was always her first responsibility. In recent years she resided at Woodside Village, Oak Bluffs, and became reacquainted with many friends from her long life on Martha’s Vineyard.
She was predeceased by her former husband, Edgartown Police Chief Frederick Hudson Worden Jr.; her sisters Margaret O’Neil and Elizabeth Stuhler, and her longtime companion Edwin DeBettencourt. She is survived by her sister Jeanne Talmadge of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., her children James Worden and his wife Margaret of Greenfield; Cheryl Pinkham of Vineyard Haven; Brenda Lynch and her husband Robert of Rochester; Dorothy Ellen Krikorian of Conroe, Texas, and Paula Stone and her husband Kenneth of Hartford, Ala.
Dorothy’s grandchildren number 13: Angela Worden Corey, Jaime Worden Dalmau, Glenn and Lori Pinkham, Richard Combra Jr. and Abby Combra Sage, Sara Lynch Keville, Edward, Pamela, and Gloria Krikorian, Gretchen Burch, and Joshua and Adam Stone, as well 18 great-grandchildren. She leaves behind many Look and O’Neil nieces and nephews.
A memorial visitation will be held in the Chapman, Cole and Gleason Funeral Home, Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road, Oak Bluffs, on Saturday, Sept. 24, from 11 am to 12 pm. Donations in Dorothy’s memory may be made to a charity of one’s choice.