Dorothy ‘Dot’ Maitlen

 
Dorothy “Dot” Maitlen, a longtime Cushing, OK resident, passed away Friday, Dec. 28, 2007 in the Cushing Regional Hospital at age 73.

Funeral services were entrusted to the Palmer Marler Funeral Home and were held at 2 p.m., on Monday (New Year's Eve) at the First Christian Church in Cushing with Dr. Larry Haney officiating. Burial was at Euchee Valley Memorial Park.

You may have known her as "Dot" or "Dorothy". Her two little great-grandsons called her "G.G" or "G. Dot".

The second of two daughters born to Lee Richard Griffeth and Opal Audine "Babe" Testerman Griffeth, Dot entered the world on April 25, 1934 at Monte Vista, CO. Raised in a loving Christian home, Dot learned the books of the Bible, at a young age, and could rapidly name every one in order throughout her life.

The two sisters attended Harmony grade school and on Sundays went to Sunday School there. Dot graduated with the class of 1952 from Cushing High School.

Dot and her sister Betty took piano lessons, which Dot was not happy about. Unsuccessful in convincing her parents that she would rather take violin than piano, her Mother found that she was taking voice lessons when she went to her piano lessons.

When Cash Maitlen and his son, John who was 5 years older than Dot. came to visit Dot's dad, Dot did her best to get John's attention by turning cartwheels all over the yard. While John didn't notice the little girl that day, a few years later when she was a Senior in High School he did. The two fell in love and on August 24, 1952 she married John Maitlen a very kind and honest man who always put his family first. Incredibly supportive of Dot, he was proud of her and encouraged her, never doubting her ability to do anything she set her mind to. Knowing her husband would never criticize her gave Dot the confidence and freedom to try things that she might not have, otherwise. 

Dot was clueless in the kitchen, as a young bride of 18, but with John's  constant praise she became an accomplished cook and later on began catering. Her White Salad was laughingly referred to as Rubber Band Salad, when the rubber band used to help hold on the glass lid flipped off. Her brother-in-law discovered it when he took a bite. 

Dot loved to make each person's favorite foods to have when they came to visit. 

Two years after their marriage John and Dot began their family with the birth of the first of their 4 daughters. Deborah was followed by Beverly then Pam, and 11 months later was Edie who was born three months prematurely--weighing in at 2 lbs and 11 ounces.

Born before the advent of "Baby Wipes", her daughters thought everyone's mother carried a jar of water, a bar of soap and washcloths under the seat of the Buick to wash their kids dirty faces and hands.

Red yellow, blue and green were the colors of Dixie cups. Each girl was given one of the colors as "their color".  While the Dixie cups were a fair way to dole out M&M's to make sure each girl got the exact same number it was also a way to know by color who left out their toothbrush. (One sister said it was so no one could deny who threw down the Dixie cup on the playground.)   

Dot loved clothes and getting dressed up. She could also drive a tractor ,which all the school kids from a neighboring school quickly found out one snowy morning when their school bus ended up in a ditch. When Dot saw it she simply got a tractor and dragged it out herself.

She could also shoot a gun well enough that she and John went on a hunting trip together one year. 

Dot lived life to the fullest, always looking for anything to celebrate. In the 1960's she won a wonderful redwood picnic table with benches, from OTASCO that was the setting for numerous picnics. 


A real  “people” person,  on the day her youngest started first grade, Dot excitedly reentered the work force, where she could be around people all day. 

At 15 1/2 when Debbie got her learner's permit Dot knew it wasn't “cool” to have your mom in the car with you as you "made the drag". Saving Debbie that horrible humiliation Dot would scoot down in the front seat so only the top of her head showed. Debbie would then drive the family car down to Bill's E-Z Out, with her sisters and Dot, to get a newspaper, Icee drink or other “must have” item.

When Debbie did acquire her license Dot became a passenger in the back seat. Dot might not stand up for herself but she protected her young. On a trip to Stillwater a carload of scary men began hitting the car bumper come up beside on the shoulder attempting to scare Debbie into the lane of oncoming traffic. Dot calmly told Debbie to not take her hands off the steering wheel but to scoot herself to the middle as “Mama was coming over that seat”… which is exactly what she did in one swift motion. Dot held onto her share of the highway and let the scary men continue their driving all over the ditch.

In an effort to keep her girls from smoking she told Debbie and Bev, who were entering their teens, that they would all three learn to smoke together....needless to say none of her daughters ever smoked. 

 
Dot enjoyed driving fast in her younger days...reading to her girls at afternoon nap time....jigsaw puzzles...wiener roasts...winter sled rides....card games…dominoes...nickels...getting up to clean house before daylight....The girls remember the washer and dryer constantly going when they were young... Dot's love of wearing animal prints...picnics...playing jokes...throwing surprise parties..clapping her hands when she was excited and doing whatever she was dared to do, including sliding down a hill on a piece of cardboard when her adult daughters stood watching with the little grandkids and telling her not to. Grandkids remember her somersaulting for them and Grandma Dot using her own car to teach them how to correctly "peel out" on Main Street... She loved to be in the middle of everything and celebrated each day and was chosen the 2007 Project Heart Queen. Many friends have shared with the family that it was Dot's laughter and sense of fun that they think of when they remember her. 

When someone was unkind Dot's way of turning the other cheek was to show them extra kindess. The night the All Star Players were to be announced, one of the daughters picked up the phone to make a call. On the party line was a classmate who lived down the road, saw the daughter as her competition for the coveted spot and was making nasty remarks about her to another calssmate. Dot suggested they offer the girl a ride to and from the game that night. The girl's mom was glad to let someone else take her and the neighbor girl walked in to the gym with the very teammate she had been bad-mouthing.

If there was a motto Dot lived by it would be "Dance like nobody's watching; love like you've never been hurt. Sing like nobody's listening; live like it's heaven on earth."   

A long time and active member of the First Christian Church, in Cushing, Dot had served as a deacon and on numerous committees there at the church in addition to being on the advisory board for Senior Citizens. 


After the passing of her beloved husband in 2000, Dot said she wanted to go for as long as she could. She  filled her days with Bunko, going to church groups, Senior Citizens, serving on several boards and continuing to deliver Meals on Wheels even when her body was failing her. Her concern that one of those precious people might not get a meal if there weren't enough people to deliver it kept her going long after she was told she was not physically able to keep on delivering meals. It gave her great joy to help others, including going to take care of the sick. She was excitedly planning from her hospital bed to help Bev with a project to help our veterans. 

Always a champion of the underdog, she was a sucker for any sad story and many times did without herself, if she thought she was helping someone else.


Predeceased in death by her husband and her parents, Dot leaves behind her daughters Debbie (Class of 1972) and husband Jerry, Beverly (Class of 1973) and husband John, Pam (Class of 1976) and her husband Tom and Edie (Class of 1976)and husband Danny. Grandkids Shelley Potter(born on her Grandma Dot's 44th birthday), Shelley's husband Darren and their son Gauge, Jon Tuggle (Dot's 6' 8" grandson) and his wife Donella and their son Gavin, Andrea Morris (who inherited Dot's cooking skills), and her husband Josh, Jennifer Lynch and Marc Tuggle (who loved her caramel popcorn balls), sister Betty Gordy (her only sibling) and Betty's husband Ray and their daughters Cyndi Pangle and Anita Gordy-Watkins along with their families. Brother-in-law Gene Maitlen, his wife Peggy, Brother in-law Dale Holmes, husband of the late Ruthelma Holmes, Sister-in-law Bonnie Johnston and her husband Bob, and the other Dorothy Maitlen "Didi", wife of the late Darrell Maitlen. She was proud of her nieces and nephews by marriage- Linda Mount, Randy Maitlen, Tony Maitlen, Beckie Parker,Nannette Tresner, Sherry Smith, Terry Pope, Teralea Holmes, Gary Holmes, Karen Baker, Kevin Holmes, Greg Maitlen, Kathy Maitlen and their spouses, children and grandchildren. Dot was  "Grandma Dot" to many little kids who came into Wal-Mart where she was a department manager, before her retirement in 2000. 


Instead of saying goodbye, Dot's last words to Edie were "So long for now". 

You may be gone but the memories live on the hearts of those who ever met you.

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If  you have memories of Dot that you would be willing to share with her family, you may e-mail here.

TO CHS ALUMNI   OTHER CHS OBITUARIES/EULOGIES  BACK TO CLASS OF 1952   .

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The sisters would like to publicly acknowledge their brother-in-law, Danny Rogers, husband of youngest daughter, Edie. Married in 1976, he and Edie sold their home near Oklahoma City and moved their family back home in the mid 1990's, to be nearby, in order to help Dot and John.    

Danny, who works out of state as a project manager for Cooper Medical (building hospitals and clinics) during the week is only home for a short time on weekends. Danny has always unselfishly and with great compassion, taken the time to lovingly help both John and Dot over the years.  Click to watch here