Doris Hitchings

SIKESTON - Doris Arlene Hitchings, 92, formerly of Belleview, died Dec. 28, 2002, at Missouri Delta Medical Center.

Born Jan. 25, 1910, in Shelby County, Ill., daughter of the late John and Effie Jenkins Engle, she was a columnist, staff writer and photographer for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in the early 1950s. As a small business owner in Belleview Valley for many years, she was active in community organizations including the Business and Professional Women's Club (currently Mina Sauk), the Heritage Foundation and the Belleview Volunteer Fire Department Auxiliary. She held long tenure on the Iron County Health Board, Iron County Extension Council and had been a committee woman for the Iron County Republican Party. She was best known for her 22 years of leadership in the Iron County 4-H Club, where she held the distinction of coaching more local, district, state and national public speaking competition winners than any other leader in the nation. A former member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Ironton, where she taught Sunday school and had served as a member and officer of the vestry., in recent years, she was a member of St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Sikeston.

In August 1943, she married Sidney P. Hitchings who preceded her in death in 1987.

Survivors include: three sons, Charles M. Silkey of Woodland Hills, Calif., and John Kent Hitchings and Gregg Lee Hitchings of Belleview; one daughter, Lynn Marie Feeler of Sikeston; one stepson, Frank W. Hitchings of St. Louis; and 13 grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.

Visitation is from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at Bryson's Funeral Home in Pilot Knob.

A memorial service will be conducted at 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Ironton.

Memorial contributions may be sent to:

the Sikeston Convalescent Center Activity Department 103 Kennedy Drive Sikeston, Mo. 63801

or

St. Paul's Episcopal Church 1010 N. Main St. Sikeston, Mo. 63801

Paid obituary