Doris Louise Thiele

Doris Louise Thiele, 99, of Clifton passed away peacefully on her birthday. Funeral services will be held at 10:00 A.M. Saturday, October 28, 2023 at First United Methodist Church, Clifton Interment at Clifton Memorial Park. Visitation will be held from 5:00-7:00 P.M. Friday, October 27, 2023 at Clifton Funeral Home.

Doris Louise (Eckert) was born October 22, 1924, in the Fairview community, east of Clifton in Bosque County, to Albert Samuel and Marie Alvine (Ott) Eckert. She attended Merrivale School there and loved to play basketball and baseball. She also was raised in and attended Fairview Baptist Church from an early age. Doris married Victor Thiele at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on November 29, 1941. Shortly after their marriage, they moved to Fort Worth. Victor entered the Army and upon his discharge, the couple moved back to the family farm in March of 1947. Their only child, Larry Victor Thiele, was born a few months later in July. Doris’ early career began as a waitress at the Big B (first and only floating) Restaurant on Lake Whitney. Her employment ended in 1957 when the lake flooded and electricity had to be cut off to the restaurant. The floating barge was badly damaged and never re-opened. In September 1957, Doris sought employment at Clifton Mercantile working in the dry goods department until 1983. She then worked at Sormrude’s Grocery Store for ten years. She left employment there to help open David’s Grocery Store, and then worked at Albrecht’s Pharmacy for ten years, retiring in 1993. Doris enjoyed working in her yard. You would often find her down on her knees or on a pillow scooting around the yard pulling weeds, or cutting grass with her handheld clippers or a pair of scissors. Doris was very independent, mowing her own grass up into her early 90’s.

Doris joined First United Methodist Church in March 1986, with her husband Victor. Victor passed away in 1990. Doris was active in the church and volunteered at the Clifton Clothes Closet for over thirty years, keeping it going and ministering to those in need. Health issues eventually kept Doris from attending church and working at the Clothes Closet, and in 2016 she turned it over to her son to run. Doris’ son, Larry, had returned to Clifton following his retirement and moved in with her to be caregiver to her and his late mother-in-law, Faye Jorgenson. It was on July 19 of this year that poor health again took its toll on her life, so Doris entered Goodall-Witcher Nursing Facility and remained there until October 22, 2023, her 99th birthday, when she passed away. Her desire had been to go home and live to be 100 years of age. Doris was preceded in death by her parents; husband Victor; sister and brother-in-law Joyce and Alton Gregory; and her daughter-in-law Alice Jorgenson Thiele. She is survived by her son, Larry Thiele of Clifton; one grandson Trevor Thiele and partner Leslie Garza of Midlothian; one great -granddaughter Braelyn Thiele of Burleson; one great-grandson Tyler Thiele of Midlothian; and several cousins, nieces, and nephews.

Memorials may be made to Sunset Hospice Care, Goodall-Witcher Nursing Facility, or First United Methodist Church of Clifton.