January 8, 1914 --- May 22, 2022 Doris Melissa Bishop Huddell, our Mother, Grandma, Grandma-great, Goo, died at the Odd Fellows at 108 years. She was an inspiration to her family and to many friends and acquaintances. Not just because of her advanced age, but because she remained young in mind, ready for new experiences, ideas and friendships. Doris was born and raised in Buffalo County, Nebraska. Her parents, Charles and Bertha Hendrickson Bishop, were proud, but poor farmers who endured the drought and the loss of their farm during the Depression. Doris was the first of five children. Followed by Marion, Marjorie, Phyllis and Lorraine. Despite the hardships of life on the farm, Doris, her parents and siblings lived together happily and passed on many delightful stories. Most memorable were those about Old Maude, the aging horse that took the children to school. Doris, during her life, visited and kept in contact with all her siblings and their children. Education was very important to the Bishops. Doris attended a country, one-room schoolhouse, and graduated from Pleasanton High School in 1931. While attending nearby Kearney State Teachers College she met fellow student, Howard Huddell, and they were married as soon as Doris was 21, a few months before their graduation in 1935. Howard had quite a romantic appeal for Doris. He was 10 years older than she, handsome, and from the big city of Philadelphia, PA, having traveled to Nebraska to serve as a student pastor. He wrote poetry and had a sensitive nature, wholly unlike most of the local folk Doris knew. Her marriage to Howard opened up the world to her. She and Howard moved to Pennsylvania where they both began studying at the seminary and Howard also was serving as pastor in Evangelical United Brethren (now the United Methodist) churches. Douglass was born two years after they were married; Sidney, Melissa, and Elaine followed, and Doris was too busy at home to continue her graduate studies. Doris and the children moved back to Kearney, Nebraska, when Howard entered the Army as a chaplain in August, 1942. He served in Europe, and they were separated for over 2 years. At the end of WWII the family moved back to the East Coast. They lived in Pennsylvania and in Virginia, where Doris began a long teaching career. Because of their frequent moves in military life she was able to teach elementary grades (principally 6th or 8th) in Virginia, Japan, Washington State, New Jersey, and again in Pennsylvania, where she retired in 1976. Howard had retired from the Army and he died in 1967. During her life Doris traveled as much as she could. Long trips by train or plane, or short trips for shopping in the next town were fun for her. She attended many of the family graduations, weddings, reunions, and concerts. She loved her tours of Europe, South America, and China. Her NEA visit to China in 1979 occurred shortly after that country opened up to the world, and she remarked how fascinated the Chinese were by the visiting teachers from the US. She toured Europe eleven times, sometimes with her children or grandchildren, and was always eager to visit Lisa and Giulio Barbin in Italy, and Akio and Uta Miyabayashi in Germany. In 1985 Doris moved to Walla Walla to be near her daughter’s family, Melissa and Jonathan Webster, Andrew and Elizabeth. She became very interested in the community, volunteered at Fort Walla Walla Museum, and was active in two churches, the Presbyterian Church, and First Congregational Church. Doris acquired a computer at age 76 and her grandchildren helped her begin emailing her family and friends. Her computer also enabled her to research and store family records. She used her computer to write two books, A Marriage in Wartime (letters between Doris and Howard,) and With Love and Prayer (a memoir.) Her family edited the books and arranged for their publication. Writing in 2011 in With Love and Prayer she says, “…the most important and interesting part of my life—then and later and now—is my family! I visited them, prayed for them, listened to them and was happy when they visited me.” Also, she writes at the end of the book and from her advanced age and experience, “Education is important to changing people's ideas. … I am thinking of the young people who have been teased so much that some of them have committed suicide! Surely that will become unthinkable, as we become more accepting of other people’s differences. I pray that time will come soon!” In addition to losing her husband, Doris endured the deaths from cancer of her oldest child and youngest child. Douglass died in 1991 and Elaine in 1998. She is survived by Sidney Feinstein of Hastings, New York, Melissa Webster (Jonathan) of Walla Walla, and daughter-in-law Marilyn Huddell of New Orleans. Her grandchildren are: Elana Shinkle of Iowa; Lisa (Giulio) Barbin of Florence, Italy; Brian (Lisa), and Kevin (Denise) Huddell of New Orleans; Andrew (Erin) Webster-Main of Virginia; Elizabeth Webster (Luke Gerwe) of Chicago; Adam Carte (Kimberly Bowron) of Boston and Houston; Katherine Carte (Jeffrey Engel) of Dallas. Doris has fourteen great-grandchildren. She has outlived all her siblings except Lorraine. She thought of Akio and Uta Miyabayashi as part of the family, and also loved her Walla Walla friend, Dr. Connie O’Neil, and her dear Pennsylvania friends, Barbara and Richard Will. Doris moved into assisted living at Odd Fellows Home in 2011, and made friends with other residents as well as the staff. During her recent years when she needed more care, her family greatly appreciated the caregivers’ skill, tenderness and kindness to Doris and to them. Burial will be at Arlington National Cemetery at the grave of her husband, Howard Huddell, where family will gather for a memorial service at a later date. The family would like to extend this link to anyone who may wish to have Doris' memoir: https://www.lulu.com/en/us/shop/doris-huddell/with-love-and-prayer/hardcover/product-1nq2j84z.html?page=1&pageSize=4