Dorcus Jean Reid "Dody"

The Passing of Dorcus Jean Call Reid

Thursday, September 17, 2020.

Dorcus Jean Reid, née Call, Passed away in her sleep during the night of September 16, 2020. Dody was born on July 22, 1936 and was 84 years old in July. She and her husband George Franklin (Frank) Reid have been married 58 years this month.

She was born in Ontario, Oregon, because it was the closest hospital to her parents home in Payete, Idaho, less than five miles away. She loved music and dancing from a young age and her mother enrolled her in a dancing class at age five. A few years later she took violin lessons and kept her first violin for many years. Her life was filled with music and dancing and she loved to buy and play the records of Broadway Musicals. Her children grew up singing many of the songs while they worked. She sang soprano in many church choirs including two events, one was a very large 1500 voice choir that performed in the Los Angeles Hollywood Bowl. The other was a choir for the dedication of the Los Angeles Temple.

Her family lived in southwest Los Angeles and she attended Manual Arts High School until her senior year. Then her mother remarried and they bought a home in the suburb of Monterey Park where she graduated from Mark Keppel High School there. She worked for a year then went to BYU in Provo Utah for a year.

Frank was called to serve in Brazil and he returned in 1960. That same year she was called to serve a mission in Peru in the former Andes Mission in South America then was transferred to Chile before the mission was divided. She was released in 1961 from the Chilean Mission.

When she returned Frank and Dody met at a stake dance in the East Los Angeles Stake. The dance was called a “Preference Ball” meaning that the girls could invite the boy of their preference. She was there only a week after returning and didn’t have a date. They met there and danced together and fell in love. They were married seven months later in the Los Angeles temple.

She was the oldest daughter of Varial (Vic) Call and Imogene Wood and is a descendant of Hyrum Smith, the brother of the Prophet Joseph Smith.

In her later years at the Williamsburg Retirement home she had visited some of the sisters, ministering to them even after she was home-bound and they came to visit her. Those women here have commented to Frank on her sweet spirit and strong testimony of the gospel.

She was preceded in death by her father and mother, and her grandparents that she also loved much. Their Daughter, Elizabeth Gaye Reid, died in 1999 in Salt Lake City. Dorcus passed away quietly in her sleep leaving behind her husband Frank, their only son Peter Franklin Reid and five of her daughters: Rebecca Denise Waters, Jeanine Grace Serantis, Janis Lee Reid, Georgina Francis Reid, and Lisa Marie Taylor.

She has been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints all her life and has held many church positions in Primary, Sunday School, and Relief Society. She was a life-long genealogist which she inherited from her grandmother, Lucetta Irene Walker who had died while Dody was on her mission. She was the genealogy instructor in every ward they lived in, preferring and teaching how to research and record families on paper forms. When the computer came out she no longer taught it but retained her strong interest, helping others for all of her life.

The cremation service will be held on Monday, September 19 at 2:30 pm at the Cache Valley Mortuary in Logan, Utah.

A Special Message:

Frank recalls that in their nightly prayers she always told him to not forget the children. They needed many blessings too.