Doris L. Lewis, 93

Doris LaVerne Lewis, 93, passed peacefully in her sleep Sept. 11, 2025, in Franklin.

She was born in 1931, in Newport, Kentucky, to Russel Davis and Margaret McCue.

Doris is survived by children Scott and Lisa Doner, stepchildren Ray Lewis and Milinda Waszczak, and brother Russell Davis, plus four grandchildren, six great-grandchildren, and many extended family. She is predeceased by husband Lloyd Lewis, ex-husband Jules Doner, eldest son Randall Doner, and sister Darleen Davis.

Doris met Jules Doner in Tucson, while still in high school, where they attended the University of Arizona together, and married in 1950, raising three children. For 20 years, as wife of a U.S. Air Force officer, she lived across the U.S., and in Japan and Spain, making friends everywhere.

After divorce in 1973, she returned to Tucson and completed a geography bachelor’s degree in 1980. She then taught English as a second language, business skills to women reentering the workforce, and high school geography and computing at Sunnyside High School, Tucson, and on Indian Reservations at Alchesay, White River and Many Farms high schools, in Arizona, and in Belt, and Wolf Point, Montana. Her passion for teaching and learning is reflected in doctorates attained by her children, in medicine, dentistry and geology.

Her favorite things included motherhood, traveling, her network of friends, and Dachshunds.

In 1981, Doris married Lloyd Lewis, an Air Force veteran of Belt, Montana. After retirement, she lived primarily in Texas, in Blanco, and then Center Point. Upon Lloyd’s death Doris moved to New Hampshire, to be closer to her remaining children, spending her final years with dignity and comfort in assisted living at Whittaker Place, Penacook, and then Peabody Place, Franklin. The family is very grateful for these caregivers.

Doris believed strongly in the Christian God but followed no specific denomination.

No immediate service or gathering is planned, but please remember her love, loyalty, and strength. Her ashes will be interred at East Lawn Cemetery, Tucson, Arizona.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests honoring her with donations to the Center Point, and Kerrville, Texas, reconstruction efforts following this year’s devasting floods: kerrvillechamber.biz/foundation-kerrville-area-rebuilding-recovery-fund.