Dorothy M. Greenshield Lindsay was born Dec. 1, 1927, in Bismark, N.D., and died Dec. 20, 2010, in Coupeville. She was the third of five children born to Charles Herbert Greenshield and Hannah May Winkley Greenshield.
Her early childhood was spent in Huff and Sanger, N.D., where her father was a section foreman for the railroad. On July 4, 1936, they left Sanger in a 1927 Chevy towing a trailer with everything they owned heading for Walla Walla to be closer to the VA hospital (Charles having been gassed in World War I).
They drove over the Cascades to the Puget Sound to visit Charles’s niece where Charles fell in love with the beauty of the Puget Sound and announced that was where they would stay. After living in Everett for a few months they moved to Freeland, Whidbey Island, where Charles had a niece.
Dorothy graduated from Langley High School, Class of 45, briefly attended Everett Business School, and took a job with the Island County Welfare Department, which brought her to Coupeville. In early 1946 she met returning World War II veteran Ralph Warren Lindsay, Jr., whom she married June 9, 1946 at her parents’ home in Freeland. She lived in Coupeville until 1995 when she moved to Oak Harbor where she lived until her passing.
For several years she and Warren ran Lindsay’s Marina on Front Street in Coupeville. She later ran a daycare service from her home at 701 Madrona Way, Coupeville. She always had a high sense of values which she imparted to her sons and the children she cared for. As she worked in the family business, even through she had four boys, she insisted that they know how to clean, cook, wash and sew for themselves.
Dorothy’s true love was sewing. Over the years she became so skilled at the craft that she began making family clothes. For 40 years, Dorothy made quilts, afghans and all other types of blankets and comforters. Besides making them for almost every family member, she instructed island residents on the art though various classes in addition to knitting well over 200 afghans, hats and gloves which were distributed worldwide through various church charities.
She was predeceased by her husband, Warren (1987), her parents, two brothers, John F. Greenshield (died as infant), Charles William (Billy) Greenshield (US Navy, lost WWII) and two sisters, Lucille Marie Frisch and Catherine Jeanette Wiley.
She is survived by all of her sons; Charles Warren Lindsay and special friend Mary Jo Leganger of Oak Harbor, William Hugh Lindsay and wife Faye of Raleigh, N.C., Ronald James Lindsay and wife Ruth of Orange, Va., and Ralph Anton Lindsay and wife Suzie of San Diego; five grandsons, James Lindsay, Robert Lindsay, Patrick Lindsay, Randy Lindsay and Michael Lindsay; three granddaughters, Patricia Cuthbert, Ashley Lindsay and Carrie Lindsay; and 10 great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28, at the New Covenant Fellowship Foursquare Church, 29470 SR 20, south of Oak Harbor, followed by a reception. In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the American Cancer Society.