Doris Brainard

Obituary of Doris Frances Brainard

Doris Frances Brainard, the sixth and last child of Charles William and Henrietta (known as Rena) Martin Brainard was born on the 1869 family farm, Grant Township, Guthrie County, Iowa, on the 11th of September, 1915. She often said that she was grateful to have in her home a feeling of family loyalty, a variety of reading material, and music (family orchestra). She learned to work at whatever task was hers. Each member of the family contributed daily during a time when farm life was almost a self-sufficient existence. They cooperated with nature to supply their needs and to earn a living.


Doris belonged to 4-H for a number of years; graduated from Grant No. 1, in 1929, from Adair, IA, High School in 1933 with honors; from the University of Iowa in 1938, with a BA in speech, English and education. She was chosen as one of forty representative students of the graduating class. She taught English, speech and directed plays at Franklin Township Consolidated, Cooper, Iowa, from 1939-1941; attended Midland Radio School, Kansas City, Missouri, the summer of 1941, and was working as a teletype operator and passenger reservationist for Northwest Airlines, Minneapolis, Minnesota, when World War II was declared. The Civil Aeronautics Administration hired her to work in Air Traffic Control. She trained and later taught at the Chicago CAA School, worked in airway traffic control at Detroit and Chicago, and was airport traffic controller at Louisville, Kentucky, for five years. She returned home January 1949 to help care for her mother, (who had had a stroke), until her death April 16, 1950. She then taught at Grant No. 1, in 1951; English, speech and directed plays at Guthrie Center High School from 1952-1953.
In 1954, she worked at the Omaha, Nebraska, Chalmers Reflexology Clinic, having studied at the Chicago, Illinois, College of Swedish Massage and Eunice Stopfel's reflexology class.

After teaching English, speech, and directing plays at Exira, Iowa, High School from 1955-1959, Doris obtained a school librarian's certificate and worked at Keokuk, Iowa, High School from 1960-1961. She received a Master's of Science in Library Science (with honors) in 1962, and an Advanced Study in Library Science in 1966, both at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois. She was circulation and reference librarian Milner Library at Normal University at Normal, Illinois, from 1962-1968 and at Thornton Community College, South Suburban College, Harvey/South Holland, Illinois, from 1969 until retirement in August 1977.

After her sister Helen's death in 1979, Doris returned to the farm home of her brother, Harold. They moved to Adair in 1986.

She belonged to Ladies Civic League, Women's Club, Happy Hour Club, Delta Kappa Gamma (teachers) Beta Phi Mu (librarians) and the University of Illinois Annuitant Association. She attended Adair City Council meetings and was a volunteer at the Adair Nursing Home. With the permission of the Dalmanutha Cemetery trustees she had a directory built to record the burials there.

Doris joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints June 4, 1961, at Nauvoo, Illinois. She was a visiting teacher, taught classes for Sunday school (adults and college students), Women's Relief Society, leadership lessons for teachers and family history research. She compiled seven volumes of her family history, and distributed them to families and libraries. She was a member of the Atlantic, Iowa, branch at the time of her death.

She was preceded in death by her parents and siblings, Edith, Glen, Helen, Mildred (Van Der Vliet) and Harold. She was the last one of that particular Brainard line, descendants of Daniel Brainard, brought from England to America at age 9, possibly as an indentured servant for a family. Later he established his family in Haddam/East Haddam, Connecticut. Eventually, a bunch of the family "migrated" to Iowa.

Doris Frances Brainard died Tuesday, July 23, 2013, at the New Homestead in Guthrie Center, Iowa, at the age of 97 years. There will be an open visitation at Hockenberry Funeral Home in Atlantic, Iowa, Friday, August 2, 2013, up to 7:00 p.m. Her funeral will be held at 10:00 a.m., Saturday, August 3, 2013, at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Atlantic, Iowa. Burial will be in Dalmanutha Cemetery rural Casey, Iowa.