Dorothy June Fletcher

Dorothy Jordan Fletcher, 80, Hardin-Simmons University’s former First Lady, died Wednesday, October 16, 2013, at Hendrick Medical Center after a long illness. A memorial service will be held at HSU’s Logsdon Chapel, 2:30 p.m., Monday, October 21, 2013. The service will be officiated by Dr. Phil Christopher, pastor of First Baptist Church Abilene; Dr. Russell Dilday, former President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary; Dr. Lanny Hall, HSU president; and Reverend David Romanik, Church of the Heavenly Rest. Services are under the direction of The Hamil Family Funeral Home, 6449 Buffalo Gap Road. It was exactly 37 years ago this fall that Dr. Jesse C. Fletcher, HSU president emeritus, first received the news from HSU’s Board of Trustees that he had been chosen as president of the university. The then pastor of First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, Dorothy (Dot), and their 15 year old daughter, Melissa, headed to Abilene, Texas. Their son, Scott, was attending Baylor University. Fletcher was to take the reins as the 12th president of Hardin-Simmons University from the retiring Dr. Elwin L. Skiles. Dorothy was born in Memphis, Tennessee, to Horace Tramel Jordan and Avium Dupree Sharpe Jordan on June 2, 1933. The family soon moved to Dallas, Texas, where Dorothy attended Sunset High School. She graduated from Tyler High School where she was voted as “Most Beautiful Girl.” Dorothy entered Blue Mountain College, a private Baptist school in Mississippi. It was during the summer of her second year at Blue Mountain, August 1953, which changed the course of her life. Jesse Fletcher was living in San Antonio; and Dorothy was home in Dallas, when mutual friends arranged for a Friday evening blind date. Jesse Fletcher had just graduated from Texas A&M and was headed to Fort Worth to attend Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. On the second day after they met, Jesse proposed. Dorothy said yes, and they were married the following February. During the family’s years in Fort Worth, Dorothy served by Jesse’s side as he pastored Wellborn Baptist Church and Kopperl Baptist Church, and held a teaching post at Southwestern Theological Seminary. In 1960, Dot and Jesse began what would be 15 years of service to the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. Jesse occupied several administrative positions before his resignation in 1975 as the director of the mission support division. During his tenure, he and Dot traveled extensively through many of the countries where Baptist foreign missionaries served in order to gain insight into personnel needs and to gain a greater understanding of mission work and missionaries. Dorothy was ever the encourager (and often the typist) as Jesse began a writing career that produced 11 books to date. His book, Bill Wallace of China, which came out in 1963, went into ten hardback printings plus numerous foreign editions before coming out in paperback in conjunction with a movie filmed in 1968. Jesse describes Dorothy as a quiet giver with a way of relating to all people. “She took on many things that others would not, including a Sunday school class of children with Down’s syndrome. Those students absolutely adored her,” says Jesse. “She also ministered to a group of troubled young women. She would help them day or night, encouraging them to call on her whenever they were in need.” When she assumed her role as the First Lady of Hardin Simmons University in 1977, she continued her behind-the-scenes efforts. Fletcher describes Dorothy as a person who never required any credit for her deeds. “This is the kind person she was, remarkably free of needing recognition.” Scott describes his mom as her own person, “I can remember mom trimming candles to prepare for services at the Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest where she was a member and a volunteer on the Alter Guild.” Melissa remembers how much her mom loved classical music. “She had a perfect pitch. Trained at an early age with an opera voice, she could have been a professional mezzo-soprano.” Dorothy suffered from occasional blindness in each eye due to Juvenile Diabetes and was one of the first in the world to undergo an experimental surgery for retinal hemorrhaging. “Dorothy offered herself for vitrectomy surgery hoping she could help with a cure for that kind of blindness. She had a prayer during those days that others, like her, would be healed…and that prayer was ultimately answered. It is a commonly performed surgery now,” says Fletcher. During time spent working on an HSU ranch near Big Bend, her family fondly remembers Dorothy as a crack shot. “As a woman with a history of eyesight troubles, at the age of 65, she never missed,” says Scott. “While hunting, Dad handed her a gun for the first time, and he later heard just two shots. When he came back to investigate, she had killed two wild pigs.” Dr. Lanny Hall remembers Dorothy Fletcher as a beautiful person who loved and admired her husband. “I remember how she would “beam” with that precious smile. I shall always remember how proud she was of Jesse the night Abilene honored him on his 80th birthday for his many contributions to the Abilene community.” HSU’s First Lady, Carol Hall, says, “Dorothy and I were good friends. I always enjoyed times spent with her. Her honesty and sense of humor were refreshing. She was very supportive and encouraging to me personally in my position as First Lady of HSU.” “She was a very intelligent, articulate individual whom we will greatly miss,” says Hall. “We have lowered the flag to half-staff in her special memory and out of respect for her service as First Lady of HSU.” Dorothy is survived by her husband, Dr. Jesse Fletcher; two children, Scott, who received an MBA from HSU in 1982, and Melissa Fletcher, who graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. degree from HSU in 1989. Scott and Melissa both live in Abilene. Dorothy is also survived by her brother, James Jordan, of Santa Clara, California; three grandchildren, Jessica Danielle Noel of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Natalie Michelle Fletcher of Bend, Oregon, and Matthew Newton Fletcher of Santa Cruz, California; and one great-grandchild, 3-year old Singer Noel. She was preceded in death by two children at infancy, Angela and Kathy Fletcher; and by her parents, H.T. and Avium Jordan. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to an HSU scholarship fund in honor of Dorothy Fletcher, Office of Advancement, P.O. Box 16100, Abilene, Texas, 79698, or the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation.