Dorothy James

A funeral service will be conducted on Monday, January 25, 2010, at 1:00 p.m. at the Schrader Chapel with Chaplain Harry Mathis officiating. A private interment service will be held at Memorial Gardens. Mrs. Dorothy Ann (Moorhead) James, 87, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, passed away early Thursday morning, January 21, 2010, at Davis Hospice Center in Cheyenne. Mrs. James was born June 7, 1922, in Rapid City, South Dakota, a daughter of the late Harvey and Ruth (Keiser) Moorhead. Dorothy was raised with her three sisters and three brothers on ranches in South Dakota where she rode horses and worked with her siblings. She moved to Washington D.C. during World War II where she worked at a post office to support the war effort. Following the war, she moved to Cheyenne to work in the local post office and later met her husband, John A. James, who was working as a Trailways bus driver. They married in Wheatland on December 13, 1947, and lived in Cheyenne where they raised their family. In 1972, she began working as a secretary for the Veterans Affairs Center in Cheyenne, retiring in 1983. In retirement, Dorothy loved to care for her grandchildren. She also loved to bowl and was an active member of the First Congregational Church. She will be remembered for her devotion to her family as a loving mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother whose unselfishness and loving heart will never be forgotten. Mrs. James is survived by two daughters, Sheryl Mathis and husband, Harry, of Ramstein, Germany, and Janice Cheever and husband, Dan, of Cheyenne; a sister, Bonnie Judson of Milliken, CO; eight grandchildren, Sarah Nowery and husband, Matt, Lukas Cheever, H. Paul Mathis, Patrick Cheever and wife, Lyllian, Christopher Mathis and wife, Catherine, Hannah Mathis, Shay Cheever and Lydia Mathis; and three great-grandchildren, Jadyn, Maddux and Bodey Cheever. She is preceded in death by her parents; her loving husband, John A. James on February 25, 1989; three brothers, Lyle, Wray and Leslie Moorhead; and two sisters, Josephine Dyer and Geraldine Cole. Expressions of sympathy in Dorothy’s memory may be made to the Davis Hospice Center, 6000 Sycamore, Cheyenne, WY 82009.