Doris Maxine Riffel Moore

Doris Maxine Riffel Moore

August 23, 2014

Doris Moore, 87, born Nov. 2, 1926, in Herington, Kansas, died on Friday evening, Aug. 23, 2014 at Harbert Hills Academy Nursing Home in Savannah, Tenn., where she’d been residing since 2006.

The staff and students of her home in the woods cared for her with the love, kindness, humor, and uncompromised quality that is possible from those who have followed their spiritual calling. Her children and grandchildren are eternally grateful.

She was preceded in death by her parents, Clarence and Selma Riffel; her husband, John Moore; her brother, Delbert Riffel; and her son-in-law, Mel Newman.

She is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, Dr. Thomas Moore and Lynn Durham; daughter, Debra Newman, all of Florence; grandchildren, Erik Moore and wife, Valerie, Gainesville, Ga.; Alicia Bjorgen and husband, Shawn, Anchorage, Alaska; Andrea Hubbard and husband, Eric, Cheswick, Penn.; Amy Moore, Anderson, S.C., and friend Joseph Witty, Tuscaloosa; Rachel Newman and friend, Kevin Coons, Bellflower, Calif.; and John Newman and fiancé, Shekinah LaVelle, Louisville, Ky.; great-grandchildren, Gabriel Moore, Camden and Dawson Bjorgen, and Gavin and Vivian Hubbard; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Near the end of World War II, a young Navy Seabee from northern Alabama stationed on the West Coast traveled to a small German farming community inland an hour or so from San Francisco to attend a USO dance. His buddy had told him the prettiest girls in California lived in Lodi. Across the room he spotted Doris Riffel, who, born into an agrarian Lutheran heritage in Kansas, had moved to California 10 years prior with her brother and her mother and father, the latter would eventually become the manager of The Lodi Winery. For the first seven years of their marriage, they remained in Lodi as they raised their son among the grape vineyards, the roses her mother cultivated, and the productive soil of the San Joaquin Valley, and he furthered his trade as an ironworker. They left her parents in the early 1950s to settle back among his family in Alabama, start a construction company, and soon a daughter joined them. She devoted her life to her children, instilling in them the work ethic and the moral compass she shared with her husband of truth, fairness, compassion, and tolerance, and the understanding that using the gifts and talents they’d been given was not optional. The congregates of Wood Avenue Church of Christ were the extended family with whom she, for 16 years a widow, worshiped and to whom she ministered when they were ailing. She was blessed by the guidance Wood Avenue preachers Lamar Plunkett, David Sain, and Kenneth Davis provided her as she grew in the knowledge, understanding, and wisdom of her faith.

The memorial service for Doris Moore was Friday, Aug. 29, 2014, at Wood Avenue Church of Christ, Florence, preceded by visitation. Her nephew Brian Moore officiated.

A graveside service for family and friends was at Belgreen Baptist Church Cemetery.

Her family expresses gratitude to the emergency medical staff at Hardin County Medical Center and the doctors, residents, and nurses in the Cardiac Care unit and the Palliative Care team at Vanderbilt University Hospital who provided seamless, compassionate medical care for our mother and end of life guidance for our family. We extend as well our appreciation to the staff of Unity Hospice who joined the care team just prior to her passing.