DOROTHY JEAN BURKETT PLYLER ALFORD

Wife of David Gaston Alford, AAFA #0503

1920 TX – 2012 TX

AUSTIN AMERICAN-STATESMAN

Austin, Travis Co., TX—Wednesday, 21 March 2012

4 July 1920–17 March 2012

            Dorothy Burkett Alford passed away March 17, 2012. She was the daughter of Judge and Mrs. Joe W. Burkett of Eastland, Texas.

            She was born in Eastland, Texas and spent her early years in both California and Texas, having graduated from Manual Arts High School in Los Angeles, California (1936) and then attended The University of Texas in Austin, Texas.

            Dorothy was trained by her father to be a legal secretary and worked for many attorneys and political officeholders during her secretarial career. Some of her former bosses included Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson, Congressman Jack Hightower, Congressman Joe M. Kilgore, Congressman Homer Thornberry, and Governor John Connally. She also managed the campaign offices for Congressman Lyndon B. Johnson and Judge Ralph Yarborough. In addition, she served as secretary to several committees at State Democratic conventions and worked for the State Democratic Executive Committee as Executive Secretary during the tenure of Governor Preston Smith.

            She married Sam B. Plyler on June 2, 1940 and they adopted a daughter, Dorothy Dee, in December 1950. Dee lives in Stuart, Florida and is married to Mr. Dick Carter.

            Dorothy married Col David Gaston Alford on September 2, 1972 and they lived 17 years in Wichita Falls, Texas before they moved (in September 1989) to Air Force Village II where Col Alford died May 25, 2002.

            Dorothy continued to live at the Village until her death. Dorothy and Gaston first met when Gaston was a flying cadet in 1940 in San Antonio; they were both newlyweds who, after some 30 years, became reacquainted.

            Dorothy is survived by her daughter, Dorothy Dee Carter; her nieces, Patricia Currier of San Antonio, Texas and Jeanne Cox of Dallas, Texas, as well as nephew, Dr. Joe W. Burkett III of Kerrville, Texas, and many great nieces and nephews, and great-great nieces and nephews. A Memorial Service will be held at the Air Force Village II High Flight Chapel on Thursday, March 22, 2012 at 10:00 a.m. She will be interred in her family burial plot in Eastland, Texas together with her mother, Mrs. Fannye Burkett, nee Pullig, and her sisters, Mrs. Margaret Ellison and Lasca Burkett.

Photo from Eastland City Cemetery, Eastland, Eastland Co., TX—www.findagrave.com

Permission granted by the photographer, Ken Jones

Photo posted 3 July 2012

AAFA NOTES: SSDI records do not list her death.

            We included the obituary of her second husband, David Gaston Alford, in Texas Obituaries.