Dorothy Regina Hanson: Hanson Reunion

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Hanson Reunion

Back left to Front right:
Alfred (Dorothy's Dad), Earl (Sister Pearl's husband), Harold (brother), Murray (husband),
Laura (Dorothy's Mom), Pearl (sister), Polly (Harold's wife), Dorothy
Natalie, Corinne, Billie, Charlene, Jeanie (Dorothy's girls)

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Dorothy was born on Feb. 21, 1912 (soon after Taft narrowly defeated the Bull Moose candidate for President) and survived 16 Presidents ending with Bill Clinton. She was born a 2nd and 3rd generation Norwegian immigrant.

Dorothy's father, Alfred, was a captain in the Coast Guard Lightship Service and served also as a lighthouse keeper in Sturgeon Bay / Escanaba, WI where she grew up.

Dorothy graduated from Bethel Adventist Academy at age 15 and entered Emmanuel Missionary College (now Andrews University) at the age of 16 y/o in 1928.

She earned her way through college by selling religious magazines and books during the summer in upper Michigan. These summers were many hours of walking by herself from one farm house to the next in the very rural region of the upper peninsula. Wherever she ended the day she stayed. The families were happy to have the visits, and Dorothy was happy to have a bed.

At the end of the summer, she would have to deliver the books and collect payment. Dorothy had a photographic memory which was critical since she had to remember how to get to each farmhouse she sold to. (Her father helped her with the deliveries in the family car).

In 1932 (when FDR defeated Hoover in a landslide victory), at age 20, Dorothy graduated with a double major of Chemistry and Home Economics. The day after her graduation she had another major event by marrying her college sweetheart, Murray, a promising ministerial graduate (5/30/32).

After a honeymoon at a cabin on Washington Island, WI, she and Murray started their ministry (in the heart of the depression) by attending annual campmeetings, conducting summer evangelistic tent meetings, pastoring churches in widespread districts, moving from place to place around Indiana: Livonia, Glezen, Bloomfield, Terre Haute, Hammond and Gary.

Dorothy was 30 when the family relocated to Oklahoma, first to Oklahoma City and then to Tulsa. During a six-month evangelistic series by Fordyce Detamore, Dorothy's home was a gathering place for the young ministers and their wives who assisted with the meetings. Approximately 225 people joined their church as a result of this effort.

Between 1934 and 1944, Dorothy had 5 beautiful girls followed by 2 handsome boys. She and her husband made quite an entrance with their 7 kids when most depression era folks were downsizing families.

Dorothy and her family moved to Lincoln, NE where they pastored a large college church for over a decade then moved on to Kettering, OH (Jan. '64) where again they led a large college congregation.

In 1972, Dorothy and Murray decided they needed to move West where Murray's mother was living and getting on in years, so they took their final official post at the Grand Ave. Adventist Church in Oakland, CA.

In 1976, they retired from the ministry and moved to Roseville, CA close to Murray's sisters and Mother. In 1976 Dorothy and Murray purchased their first home as well as purchased a old run down cabin near Pikeville, TN.

Retirement was good to Dorothy and Murray. They annually criss-crossed the country visiting their 7 children and growing numbers of grand-children who had their own families. They continued to work actively with the community, church and neighborhood.

It was sad irony that Dorothy found herself with colon cancer after living a life of vegetarianism and vigorous excercise. She was positive and upbeat to the end (May '98).

It would be conservative to say that Dorothy served a Sabbath meal to no less than 6,600 different friends and visitors over her 64 years of ministry ('32 - '96).

She was a very gifted woman with a golden heart.

Dorothy Regina Hanson

Saturday, October 27, 2007

Hanson Reunion

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