Dorothy Louellen McKnight Benton
February 25, 1920 - January 10, 2011
Dorothy Benton died peacefully in the company of family in Boulder, Colo. She was known to all her friends as Micki and to her many grandchildren and great-grandchildren as Tutu. Micki chose to be cremated and will be interred with her late husband, Tom, at Arlington National Cemetery.
Born and raised in Glenwood, she was the third and youngest daughter of Louie McKnight and Ellen Riggs McKnight. Micki attended Glenwood public schools and graduated from Glenwood High School in 1937 in the company of what would become many lifelong friends.
Micki is survived by her daughter Suzanne and her husband Lawrence of Boulder, her son Michael and his wife Deborah of San Francisco, Calif., five grandchildren: Sebastian, Valery, Michelle, Sean, Paloma, seven great-grandchildren, nine nieces and nephews, other relatives and many close friends. She was predeceased by her parents, her sister Lucile McPherron and husband Ralph, her sister Winnifred Embree and husband Harold, and by Tom, her beloved husband of 62 years.
Growing up in Glenwood she was active in many school and community organizations including being a lifelong member of First Baptist Church and Glenwood’s Eastern Star chapter. She was a past Grand Adah of the Iowa Grand Chapter of Eastern Star. It was also in Glenwood, on the town square, that she met Albert Thomas “Tom” Benton of Malvern, her husband to be. They married Sept. 12, 1940, at the First Baptist Church.
Tom and Micki lived in Glenwood until he was called to World War II active duty with the U.S. Army in 1941. She was fortunate to be able to accompany Tom on his various assignments around the United States in the first years of the war. Their son Michael was born in 1943. When Tom deployed to Europe in early 1945, Micki and Michael returned to Glenwood. Following Tom’s separation from active duty they lived in Glenwood, where their daughter Suzanne was born in 1948. Tom returned to active duty with the Air Force in 1951 and he, Micki and the kids began an exciting and adventurous series of assignments in Omaha, Neb.; Rapid City, S.D.; Montgomery, Ala.; Yakota, Japan; Arlington, Va.; and Wahiawa, Hawaii.
After retiring from the Air Force, Tom took a civilian position with the Defense Department in Northern Virginia. Upon Tom’s final retirement they moved to Virginia Beach for many years, until they came full circle and returned to Glenwood in 2002, where they had always kept close ties to friends, family and community.
Wherever Micki lived and traveled she reached out to local community groups and churches where she loved helping people and enjoyed the company and friendship of others. Some of her many stories and happiest memories were of all the wonderful people she met and of the many lifelong friendships she developed and maintained. While at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota in the mid-1950s, she sang and performed in musicals that she helped create. She also learned to ride horses and went on long riding camping trips into South Dakota’s Badlands. In Japan, Micki helped teach Japanese brides of American servicemen American customs and cooking. As president of her Toastmistress Club chapter she developed her public speaking skills. Always an excellent cook, she took classes in Japanese and Chinese cuisine. She chased tornados in Iowa; took up skiing in her sixties. She loved walking on beaches where she collected bushels of sea shells over the years and let free her artistic expression in many creations.
As far as her travels might have taken her around the world, Micki loved Glenwood and she and Tom would get home as often as possible over the decades when they lived elsewhere. Attending the Glenwood High School Homecoming weekend with friends whom she had started first grade with was very important and a highlight of the year.
Her adventuresome, dynamic spirit and generous manner will be greatly missed.