SKOWHEGAN – Dorothy Viola Worthley Cleaver died peacefully on Oct. 24, 2016, in her home beside the Kennebec River with her family surrounding her.
Dorothy was born in Sewickley, Penn. on Sept. 15, 1925, the daughter of Clifford and Marie Fahrny Worthley.
The family moved back to the Worthley home in Strong when Dot was a young girl. She grew up helping her parents work several dairy farms in Farmington and Strong, a childhood that nourished her remarkable grit and love of the outdoors.
Hunting with her father was a defining experience.
During the war Dot worked as a welder in the Portland Shipyards. After graduating from Strong High School and Colby College, where she was a stand-out basketball player, Dot taught at Wilton Academy before meeting and marrying Charles Spencer Cleaver. Preparations for the marriage included Dot mastering a long cast with a fly rod. Over the course of the next sixty years, Dot and Chuck lived and worked in Wilmington, Delaware and retired back in Maine. Raising five children and devoting herself to leadership in many community projects from Girl Scouts to the Skowhegan Food Cupboard, Dot created homes in Delaware and in Maine that were gathering places for family and friends of all ages. Her optimism, ingenuity, humor, kindness, passion for politics, and poetry inspired everyone who knew her.
Their shared love of camping, canoeing, and fishing led Dot and Chuck to Canada for audacious wilderness canoe trips including the George, Back, Kazan, Coppermine, and Rupert Rivers. Through 29 years of retirement, they enjoyed camping and superb fishing in many rivers, streams, and ponds in northern Maine. They were widely admired for their colorful arguments about everything from running rapids, to whether visits to children warrant traveling south of Augusta, and for their devotion to each other.
Dot is survived by her five children and their spouses, by 13 grandchildren, and by 7 greatgrandchildren. Her children are Patricia Hager and her husband Brad, Thomas Cleaver and his wife Valerie, Clifford Cleaver and his wife Kathi, Rebecca O’Neill, and Robert Cleaver and his wife Renee; grandchildren: Amy Price and her fiance Gary Holden, Whitney Wilson and her husband Andy, Clay Coard and his wife Leah, Bruce Cleaver and his fiancee Melissa Lane, Sara Cleaver, Emily Hager, Anna Hager Loome and her husband David, Abby and Jodi Cleaver, Callie and Kate O’Neill, Jana Turco and her husband David, Kyle Richardson; and greatgrandchildren: Brady, Spencer, and Ali Wilson, Laurel, Blake, and Lila Coard, and William Turco.
Dot is preceded in death by her parents and three sisters, Bertha Murchison, Laura Lambert, and Ruth Ormond. Chuck died in 2010. The family cherishes Dot’s best friend and sidekick Winnie, her English Springer Spaniel.
Friends are invited to gather for an informal service to celebrate Dot’s life at 3:00 p.m. on Dec. 3, 2016 at 122 Corson Farm to Table, at 122 Corson Road in Mercer, Maine.
Every child she ever met was precious to Dot. Those who wish to honor her might consider a contribution to an organization committed to the welfare of children.
Arrangements under the direction and care of Dan & Scott’s Cremation & Funeral Service, 445 Waterville Road, Skowhegan, ME 04976
