A comfort to widows of three wars, Pritchard dies at 98

Thursday, Feb. 18, 1999 | 11:14 a.m.

Doris Pritchard, like all mothers of World War II soldiers, said goodbye to her pilot son, Army-Air Corps Capt. Robert Henry Rodgers, knowing full well the uncertainty of his return.

Her worst nightmares came true not in the skies over Germany or Japan but in her native Texas. As Robert flew his fighter on a training mission near the Texas panhandle town of Pampa, another aircraft clipped his tail section, sending Robert's plane spinning out of control into a rugged mountainside.

He left not only his mother, but also a wife and 3-day-old daughter. After sticking a gold star in her window -- a practice denoting a son killed during the war -- a grieving Pritchard dedicated her life to consoling the mothers and widows of other men killed during World War II and the Korean and Vietnam wars.

Doris Velma Pritchard, who moved to Henderson in the waning days of World War II and twice served as president of the Nevada chapter of the American War Mothers, died Sunday of heart failure at the Henderson Convalescent Center. She was 98.

Graveside services for Pritchard, who lived in Henderson for 54 years and was twice widowed, will be 2 p.m. Friday at Boulder City Cemetery.

A diminutive woman, Pritchard amazed friends by turning cartwheels when she was 80. A skilled musician who played the piano, guitar and mandolin, she also sang in the Vegas Valley Christian Church choir until her late 80s.

"She was opinionated, at times could be ornery and was very independent," said longtime friend Kitty Rivers, wife of former Vegas Valley Christian Church pastor the Rev. Joel Rivers.

"She loved to cook and was young at heart. Her secret to longevity probably was that she didn't smoke or drink, she went to church and she stayed active."

Pritchard's No. 1 cause was tending to the emotional needs of widows and mothers of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines who were killed in action. Among her prized mementos were awards honoring her service as president of the Nevada American War Mothers in 1968-69 and 1973-74.

"She was a great source of support for other mothers especially during World War II," said Velma "Nellie" Forester, Pritchard's 84-year-old niece who lives in Galveston, Texas.

"She and my mother, Juanita Scruggs, used to perform as a duet, singing church songs. Doris was a wonderful religious lady who made people feel welcome when they met her."

One of the places the sisters performed at regularly was the Henderson Convalescent Hospital, where Doris and her second husband, Bedford Forrest Pritchard, eventually died.

Born Doris Velma Jones on March 30, 1900, in Palestine, Texas, Pritchard was the youngest of nine children of railroad engineer Henry Jones and his wife, the former Nellie Lewis. Only six of their children survived infancy.

Robert, a part-time minister, insisted that all of his children have musical backgrounds and that all of them have extensive knowledge of the Bible. Doris was a longtime Bible class teacher at the Vegas Valley Christian Church.

As a youngster, she took family train trips to Galveston, where she enjoyed beach activities. She also rode horses around her East Texas hometown of Palestine (pronounced palace-steen) with her lifelong friend, Marie Worley.

"We used to play in the streets at night because there were no cars or crime and the horse and buggies didn't travel much after dark," said Worley, who last July turned 100 and lives in Mesquite, Texas. "I've lost my best friend and my last friend."

Worley's daughter, Dorothy Hoke, remembered that enduring friendship, which included Pritchard playing piano at Worley's March 5, 1919, wedding: "As they grew older they kept in close touch. They wrote to each other until neither of them were able to write anymore."

After graduating from high school in Palestine, Pritchard went to work as a saleswoman for the town's Grand Leader variety store -- the only paying job she ever had. Soon after, she married Robert Rodgers, a railroad worker who was killed in a 1930s train accident.

Pritchard was left to raise their two children. Her daughter, Wanda Ruth Rodgers-Rossi, became a stuntwoman who specialized in horseback riding at rodeos and in motion pictures. She died seven years ago.

She married Bedford Pritchard, a longtime Nevada Test Site worker, in the 1950s. He died about 10 years ago.

In the early 1990s, Pritchard moved into a group home, where she remained until she broke a hip in a fall last March and moved into the convalescent hospital.

She is survived by a granddaughter and three great-grandchildren.