With profound sadness we announce the passing of Marjorie Ellen (Haase) Dossett, our loving and devoted mother, grandmother, great grandmother, and great-great grandmother on March 8th, 2023. She was 97 years and 11 months old. Marjorie was born on April 30th, 1925 in Bryan, Ohio to Ferman and Nora Clova (Stokes) Haase. She was the 4th of 5 children who all preceded her in death.
Marjorie lived a very active life and enjoyed so many things, the greater the adventure the better. She graduated from Montpelier Ohio High School in 1943, where she served on several committees, and was active in sports. Her favorite sport was Archery, although she was quite good at basketball and bowling as well. Her yearbook states that her ambition was to be a bookkeeper and typist and she was described as ‘ a quiet and peace loving lass, she lives harmoniously with the world’. She also loved art and wanted to go to college to study, but that was not acceptable at the time, so after high school she moved to Michigan and began to fulfill her other dream. She worked in the office of Hartwick-Woodfield Company while she lived at the YWCA. Later, she moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota to attend school and resided at a mansion boarding house, where the proprietor found her to be a charming and lovely woman. She was always trying to set Marjorie up on a date with her son. It’s a good thing that didn’t work out! After going to school where she became certified in Meteorology with the hopes of becoming an Air Traffic Controller, Marjorie then attended a school in Omaha, Nebraska and learned to be a teletype operator. She befriended two classmates that had the same ambition as hers, to go out to Oakland, California and be a part of the war effort. This is where she became a 2nd shift coder during WWII for the War Department.
Marjorie loved to dance and there just happened to be a dance hall across the street from her job where she spent many nights dancing until sunrise. Marjorie met the love of her life, William (Bill) Dossett, when she went on a blind date to the bowling alley with friends in the fall of 1945. They became engaged on November 25, 1945 and they married in Montpelier, Ohio on February 17, 1946. Mr. and Mrs. Dossett then resided in Bill’s home town of McPherson, KS. Bill was a volunteer fireman and started a flooring business with friends while Marjorie took in ironing as well teaching herself to be a seamstress. She made men’s suits from patterns she cut from newspaper. They had 5 children over the next 13 years; William (Sandy) Dossett, Jr. (Carolyn), Cheri Steffes, Clovia Katzenmeier (Dennis), Timothy Dossett and Colleen White (Gerald).
They moved to Salina in 1953 and built their family home in 1958 where Marjorie lived for over 60 years. Marjorie was a Cub Scout leader for her sons, she was in both a bowling and a golf league and sang in the church choir. Summers were spent at the lake fishing, playing cards with friends and getting together at the end of summer for a fish fry. Winters were spent with the same camping group, going to dance halls and taking turns at each other’s houses to play cards and dominoes. Once all of Marjorie’s children were school age, she resumed her career in office management until she retired, and took a well deserved trip to Europe. She missed working, so she volunteered at Sunset Grade School in the Foster Grandparent Program for 10 years, and worked until she was 87 years old. Marjorie loved all of her 10 grandchildren, 25 great grandchildren and 2 great-great grandchildren with all her heart. She rarely missed a birthday or special event. She was dearly loved and will be greatly missed. See you on the other side Mom!
Funeral service will be at 2 pm, Friday, March 17, 2023 at First United Methodist Church, 122 N. 8th St., Salina, KS.