Dorothy Lucile Brining, 93, died peacefully on Nov. 9 in her son and daughter-in-law’s home in Waddington, N.Y. For the last 12 months, Don and Cher lovingly cared for her in their home where she often got to spend time with her granddaughter, Danielle and her husband, Ronnie Plumadore and share in the joy of the upcoming birth of their first child–her first great grandchild!
Dorothy Lucile Brining was born on Dec. 24, 1917 in Albert to Charles and Anna (Bird) Archer. She spent her childhood on her family’s farm 10 miles west of Great Bend on Tenth St. She always fondly remembered baking cookies with her mother, every Saturday trying out a new kind. Dorothy graduated valedictorian of her class from Great Bend High School in 1935. She went to work for the ASCS office in Great Bend, and in the Methodist Youth group came to know and love a young man named Raymond Brining. Raymond and Dorothy were married on April 17, 1944 in Great Bend when he was home on furlough. Together they set up their first home in Newark, N.J., where Raymond was stationed.
After the war, they returned to Great Bend where they joined Raymond’s parents in farming. In 1948 they moved into their own home on the farmstead and lived there together until Raymond died in October of 2010. They shared 66 years of marriage, raised two children together–Donald and Barbara, and were very much partners in all that they did - both the large and the small...from making decisions about the farm and caring for his parents in their later years to hanging wallpaper or making popcorn balls or homemade ice cream...they were a team.
Dorothy was active in the Liberty Home Demonstration Unit and the First United Methodist Church where she taught Sunday school all of her adult life – classes ranging from kindergartners to 90 year olds. Studying the Bible was her avocation...she would study daily for the classes she was teaching or taking and taught a Menninger Bible study class when she was in her late 80s.
She was renowned in the Brining family for her cooking and hosted countless gatherings of family and friends. No Brining reunion or visit from the nieces and nephews would be complete without Dorothy’s cookies – especially the ginger ones.
She was quite a seamstress and if she was sitting, always had something in her hands – be it sewing or handiwork or embroidery...or a book.
Dorothy’s life was focused on the family, the farm and her faith. She expressed her love through the meals she cooked, the stitches she took and the letters she wrote. Her steadfastness and quiet support, her "Dorothy" ways, and especially her smile will be missed by all who knew her.
Survivors include one son, Donald and his wife, Cher, Waddington, N.Y.; one daughter, Barbara Brining Ross and her husband Jim, Clark, Colo.; one granddaughter, Danielle Brining Plumadore and her husband Ronnie, Waddington, NY; four sisters-in-law and one brother-in-law: Mildred Snyder, Oviedo, Fla.; Clarice Brining, Great Bend; Wilma and Don Riegel, Lubbock, Texas; and Kate Archer, Green Mountain Falls, Colo.; and a host of nieces and nephews who meant the world to her.
Funeral services will be at 10:30 a.m., Friday, Nov. 18 at First United Methodist Church, Great Bend. The Reverend Tom Sheldon will officiate. Burial will follow in the Great Bend Cemetery. Friends may call from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., with the family receiving friends from 6 to 8 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 17 at Bryant Funeral Home. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorial donations be sent to the Raymond and Dorothy Brining Scholarship Fund at Kansas State University, the First United Methodist Church of Great Bend, or Hospice and Palliative Care of St. Lawrence Valley, all in care of Bryant Funeral Home. Condolences may be left at www.bryantfh.net.
Funeral arrangements provided by
Bryant Funeral Home**
1425 Patton Road
Great Bend, KS 67530
Great Bend (Kan) Tribune, Nov. 13, 2011
