Obituary of Dottie Lee Stewart

Funeral Services for Dottie Lee Ray Stewart of Elsberry, MO will be held at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, December 15, 2020 at Carter-Ricks Funeral Home in Elsberry. Charlie Henley, William Patrick and Duke Duvall will officiate with burial in the Elsberry City Cemetery near Elsberry. Serving as pallbearers will be Nick Clevenger, Gene Grimshaw, Kevin Crawmer, Bruce Stewart II, Adam Stewart, Jared Stewart, Aaron Carr, Chris Zumwalt, and Richard Evans. Honorary pallbearer will be Gerald Taylor. Mrs. Stewart, 87, passed away Thursday morning, December 10, 2020 at the Elsberry Health Care Center near Elsberry. Born November 17, 1933 in Silex, MO, she was the daughter of Jerry Mar and Mary Edna Colbert Ray. Dottie was united in marriage on June 17, 1951 in Elsberry to Harold Gene Stewart. This union was blessed with four children: Debbie, Pam, Bruce and Melissa. Dottie was a member of Whiteside Baptist Church in Whiteside, MO. She served as Sunday School and Vacation Bible School teacher at Annada Christian Church and Clarksville Baptist Church for many years. She encouraged her children, grandchildren and students to read the Bible and go to church. She was a loving and devoted wife and homemaker. The wife of a pastor, she always supported Gene in the pulpit. Dottie was preceded in death by her parents, Jerry and Edna Ray; one grandson, John Thomas Stewart in 2008; one brother, J.C. and wife, Ruthie Ray; four sisters: Margie and husband, Russell Gladney, Sarah Ellen “Serdie” Ray, Helen and husband, Tommy Hunter and Mary Marie Ray, who died as an infant; one brother-in-law, Dick Stewart; and her beloved husband of nearly 67 years, Harold Gene Stewart, who died on February 10, 2018. Survivors include her children: Debbie Vortman and her husband, David, of Bluffs, IL, Pam Grimshaw and her husband, Richard, of Troy, MO, Bruce Stewart and his wife, Brenda, of Elsberry and Melissa Wheeler and her husband, Ed, of Eolia, MO; ten grandchildren, thirty-four great-grandchildren and two great, great-grandchildren. Dottie also leaves one sister-in-law, Leona Stewart of Moscow Mills; several nieces, nephews, other relatives and many friends. Visitation will be held from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. Monday, December 14, 2020 at Carter-Ricks Funeral Home in Elsberry. Memorials may be made to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (or) Make A Wish Foundation in care of Carter-Ricks Funeral Home, 107 S. 5th Street; Elsberry, MO 63343.