Dorothy Longwell

Dorothy Longwell, 79, of Bertram died Jan. 4, 2012, after a bout with Alzheimer’s disease. She was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on April 21, 1932, to Floyd and Katherine Dominick.

In 1953, she graduated from Long Island College Hospital School of Nursing.

She loved to travel and took a cross-country train trip with her grandmother to Los Angeles, where she got a nursing job at a local hospital. There she met Charles Longwell and, after a brief courtship, the two married in Austin on Aug. 2, 1957.

She worked as a registered nurse at Breckenridge Hospital in Austin until she and her family moved to Bertram in 1972. There she joined the nursing staff at Burnet’s Sheppard Hospital and later Seton Highland Lakes Hospital.

For more than 30 years, she tended to the sick and hurting, all the while caring for her family with love and good humor; volunteering in the community, singing in the church choir and battling the deer that always tried to eat her rose bushes.

Her life’s testimony is shown in the lives of her family, friends and those who were her patients during her decades-long work as a nurse.

Although struggling against the mental and physical deterioration of Alzheimer’s disease, she still recognized prayer and words of grace.

In addition to her husband of 54 years, survivors include son Mike Longwell and wife Janet of Houston; daughters Jean Maninger and husband John of Los Angeles and Bonnie Pritchett and husband Steven of League City; and grandchildren Nathan, Christopher, Brandon, Anna, Kate, Sarah, Robert and Sam.

A memorial service is 2 p.m. Jan. 8 at First Baptist Church, 325 S. Gabriel in Bertram.

Condolences may be offered at www.clementswilcoxburnet.com.

Arrangements by Clements-Wilcox Funeral Home, 306 Texas 29 East in Burnet, (512) 756-2222.