Dorothy Joyce Gudermuth (nee Lemme) passed away on December 20, 2024, at age 96. She was born to Edwin Charles Lemme, Sr. and Marie “Mamie” Antonia Lemme (nee Cerny) on June 5, 1928. She was delivered by a midwife in her parents’ home on Chippewa Street just east of Kingshighway in South St. Louis. Dorothy’s brother, Edwin “Ed” Charles Lemme, Jr. was four years older than her. Because their mother worked outside the home, Ed was often responsible for taking care of his little sister, so she tagged along with Ed and his friends and tried to do everything the boys did. They rode bikes everywhere, played cork ball and bottle caps and dodge ball, shot marbles, and made derby cars out of scrap materials.
One of Ed’s friends was Roy Edward Gudermuth, Jr. At first, Roy was just part of the crew, but as they got older, Roy and Dorothy started dating. They both attended Cleveland High School but drifted apart when Roy enlisted in the Navy in January 1944 at age 17. When Roy was honorably discharged in July 1946, he returned home and reconnected with Dorothy, and they were married in July 1948. Their first home was a rented duplex on Alfred Street in South St. Louis, but they eventually bought a newly constructed home across from Grant’s Farm in 1955 where they raised their two daughters, Karen Lee, born in 1954, and Kathy Lee, born in 1955. They made many sacrifices for their daughters, including saving up to send them both to WashU, as education was a key family value.
Roy and Dorothy enjoyed boating and waterskiing on the Mississippi River as well as at Lake of the Ozarks where they built a vacation home in 1968. There were many wonderful neighbors at the lake with whom they played Sequence in the evenings after a long day of helping each other with various home projects. They also loved to travel and went to Canada for many years to fish for Walleye and Northern Pike. They often went country-western dancing with friends, and later in life they became interested in genealogy and did extensive research on their family trees. Dorothy did not consider herself a good cook, but she made a delicious macaroni and cheese casserole, and her noodles and gravy were also a hit. She sometimes had her grandkids over for overnight visits where she could spoil them with old movies and Nickelodeon at Nite while they ate candy and homemade caramel popcorn.
Dorothy had several part time jobs while attending high school, but her first fulltime job was as a typist at Bowersox Insurance Company. She could type 90 words per minute on a manual typewriter, and she was eventually promoted to fire underwriter. She stopped working about a month before Karen was born and stayed home to raise her. However, after Kathy was born, Dorothy wanted to find a part time job that she could do at home to help pay bills. She learned about a company that could deliver a key punch machine to her house where she entered data and was paid based on the number of cards she punched. She eventually turned this job into a business by taking delivery of the work at her house and then distributing it to various women who worked for her. After her daughters were in college, Dorothy decided to close her business and took a job at Safeco Insurance Company as a key punch operator where she typed over 100 words per minute. Her last and best job was as a secretary at the Washington University Health Administration Program, where she worked until she retired in 1993.
After Roy died in 2006, her St. Louis neighbors looked out for her and helped her whenever needed, but she was very independent and tried to do as much as she could on her own. She cut her own grass well into her 90’s, and shoveled her driveway whenever it snowed, and she even tried to shovel her neighbors’ driveways when they weren’t looking. Dorothy was a force of nature who valued hard work above all else, and she lived in the same home for 69 years right up to the end. It was a blessing that she could take care of herself for so long.
Dorothy was preceded in death by her parents, her brother, her husband, and her daughter, Kathy James. Surviving are her daughter, Karen (Daniel) Logan; her grandchildren, Jason (Emily) Logan, Justin (Erica) Logan, Margaret (Clayton) Provine, and James O’Donnell; and four great grandchildren with one on the way. Per her wishes, services were private.