Dorothy Williams

Dorothy T. Williams (Donitza) died quietly in her sleep at the Gardens Nursing Home, after falling and breaking her hip. She went to be with her Lord on Saturday, November 24, 2018. Dorothy was born on October 5, 1914, to Dan Trboyevich and Ruzica Haydvkovich in the upstairs of her father’s saloon in Bovey, Minnesota. Her father always told her he was disappointed she wasn’t a boy, but named her Daniel after himself anyway. Later her name was changed to Danica after her favorite aunt, and then finally she became just Dorothy (“Dunny” and “Donitza” to her friends). When she entered kindergarten in 1919, none of the 27 culturally diverse students spoke English. Yet out of all that class, only one boy didn’t graduate from a college or university. They became engineers, physicists, teachers, nurses, actors, and even a NASA scientist. Upon graduation from high school, Dorothy looked forward to attending the University of Minnesota with the 10 cents an hour she earned working at a dry goods store selling socks and handkerchiefs. She wanted to study music and English. However, when she shook her piggy bank, it was empty! It was the Depression, and her father, unbeknownst to “Dunny,” had used her wages to buy food for the family. Devastated but undeterred, the gutsy young Dorothy found a job in her dorm at the University to cover room and board and asked to be her music professor’s secretary to pay for music lessons and books. She was really determined! Interestingly, it wasn’t all work for Dorothy. She attended the school’s annual ball with senior Hubert H. Humphrey, who later became the Vice President of the United States. After receiving her diploma, Dorothy’s first job was teaching in Pine Island, near Rochester, Minnesota, for a meager $65 a month. Yet, even with that, she was able to save and attend Columbia University in New York City, where she later obtained an MA in music and English in 1942. Then came WWII, so Dorothy joined the Navy and received her training at the prestigious Smith College. Her tours of duty for the next 21 years were in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and New York. This duty allowed her to meet many famous people, including Douglas MacArthur. To top it off, Dorothy was one of only four females to achieve the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the Navy. In 1948 she married William Yarnell, and they were stationed in Yanking, China. Just a few years later William, among the first Americans to go in to Japan after the bombing, died of complications from cancer he contracted from the fallout while doing cleanup in Japan. In 1960 Dorothy married Captain Paul D. Williams, who following his distinguished military career--including escorting President Roosevelt on the USS Cummings up and down the Pacific coast--worked at the Education Testing Service in Princeton, New Jersey. The couple traveled extensively to exotic places like China, New Zealand, Australia, Norway, Finland, Russia, Yugoslavia, and her beloved Serbia, to name a few. Dorothy’s parents and three siblings, Olga, Alexander, and Zorca, preceded her in death. Dorothy is survived by her sister Goldie Trboyevich of Arizona and her brother Boris of Minnesota. Memorials may be sent to the to the Serbian National Federation at 615 Iron City Drive #302, Pittsburg, Pennsylvania 15205, The Saint Sava Serbian church at 4436 E. McKinley Street in Phoenix, Az, or Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch Foundation at 2050 Overland Avenue in Billings, Montana 59102.