GORHAM – Dorothea “Dot” Atkins Lopez, 92, passed away peacefully surrounded be her family Jan. 22, 2006. Dot was born April 19, 1913, in Oxbow, the daughter of renowned guide and trapper, William and Maude (Littlefield) Atkins. Her childhood in Oxbow was spent tending to the chores of her father’s Oxbow Lodge and attending school, first at the local one room school house and then beginning high school at the Ricker Classical Institute in Houlton. Beginning her sophomore year, she moved in with her uncle and aunt in Westbrook, Mr. and Mrs. Edgar Hinkley and began attending Westbrook High School. She captained the girls’ basketball team her junior and senior years. She graduated in 1931 and attended Nasson College in Springvale. In 1935, she married Richard Lopez, one of the founding partners of Lopez and Church. After first setting up house in Westbrook, they moved to the home on State Street in Gorham in 1944. They had four daughters, Mary, Ann, Gale and Debbie. Dick passed away in 1965. Dot worked at S.D. Warren from 1954, until her retirement in 1978. The house in Gorham provided not only a loving home for the girls and a special gathering place for all their neighborhood friends, but throughout her life Dot had made the house on State Street a welcome and safe home to generations of her and Dick’s family, which must have at times brought back memories of her childhood at the Oxbow Lodge. Dot took tremendous pride in her home and was a fixture for decades pushing her lawnmower up and down the large yard, gathering leaves and sticks or balancing precariously on a porch roof clearing snow. The home has always been an immaculate and welcoming gathering place for her family during the holidays and vacations. Although quite a homebody, Dot was always fascinated with the world and enjoyed her time sailing in the Baltic Sea and trips to San Diego, Cozumel and Houston for family visits, but probably most of all, Dot relished her excursions back to Oxbow and rocking in “her” chair on the porch of Pete ‘n Sandy’s log cabin on the shore of Fish Lake. Dot was a lifetime member of the Order of the Eastern Star, Mizpah Chapter No. 3. For the past 30 years, she shared a special relationship with her friend, Arthur Bragdon of Westbrook. They shared countless hours of good conversation, enjoying meals at many local restaurants and Arthur is considered an important member of her family. Besides her husband, Dick, she was predeceased by her sisters, Beatrice and Eldora; brothers, Sumner, Wilfred (Sleepy) and William Atkins. Dot is survived by her daughters, Mary and her husband, Rick Fanene, of American Samoa, Ann and her husband, Harvey St. Cyr, of Sanford, Gale and her husband, Stig Pedersen, of Houston, Texas and Debbie and her husband, Mike Bailey, of Searsmont. Lovingly remembering their “Gram” are five grandchildren, Pamela Espalin, Otto Pedersen, Hannah Reichl and Lindsay and Kate Bailey; eight great- grandchildren and two great- great-granddaughters. Also having special remembrances of “Aunt Dot” are nieces and nephews, Pete and Sandy Beck, Sumner Jr. and Carolyn Atkins and Jackie and Elaine Atkins. A gathering to celebrate her life and memories will be held 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 28, at home. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to the American Macular Degeneration Foundation, P.O. Box 515, Northampton, MA 01061-0515. Arrangements are by Dolby & Dorr Funeral Chapel, Gorham.
DOROTHEA ‘DOT’ ATKINS LOPEZ
