Dorothy Ravenhorst passed away on April 9, 2026, at age 104.

Dorothy P. Angle was born on July 26, 1921, in Yakima, Wash.  She was the sixth of eight children, seven of whom reached adulthood.  Her parents, William Sewell Angle and Kathrena Jostes Angle, were homesteaders in the small remote village of White Bluffs, Wash.  Her father was a rural mail carrier as well as an orchardist and farmer. 

Her parents wanted their children to have the opportunity to attend college, and William was able to trade mail routes with a mail carrier in the small town of Woodburn, Ky. In November 1929 (shortly after the stock market crash initiated the Great Depression) the entire family loaded into a Model A panel truck and a Buick sedan and made their way eastward across the country to Kentucky.

Dot finished elementary and high school in Woodburn and went on to the University of Kentucky, where she majored in home economics.  While she was attending college, the United States entered the second World War.  On a blind date in April of her senior year, she met Henry Louis Ravenhorst, from Lexington, Va. He was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army temporarily stationed in Lexington, Ky., before being assigned to a remote radar base in Adak, one of the Aleutian Islands in the Alaska territory. 

After graduating from UK, Dorothy joined the U.S. Navy as a WAVE.  She became a naval gunnery instructor and served in the Miami, Fla., area until her discharge in November 1945.  That month, Dorothy and Henry were married on an army base in New Jersey.  A few months later, they moved to Lexington.

Henry worked briefly as an instructor at VMI before becoming an associate professor of engineering at Washington and Lee University and developing an architecture practice.  Dorothy was a full-time mother, and together they raised five children.  Both Hank and Dot were active in Trinity United MethodistChurch and the local community.  Dorothy served on the board of trustees of the Rockbridge Regional Library, the Mental Health Association, the Lexington Woman’s Club and the Lexington Garden Club.

After her children were older, she held offices at the district, conference and national levels of United Methodist Women and the United MethodistChurch.  She was elected as a director of the Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries.  In that position, she traveled the world observing and reporting on missions and missionaries.  She was elected to attend several General Conferences and was the first woman to lead the Virginia Delegation to the United Methodist Church General Conference. She served on the board of trustees of Ferrum College for a number of years.

Dorothy was predeceased by all her siblings, her husband Henry, and by her son John William Ravenhorst, who passed away in 2005 due to ALS, survived by his widow Cari Young Ravenhorst.

Dot is survived by three daughters - Johanna Marie Ravenhorst, Kathrena Ravenhorst Adams and her husband Mel, and Evelyn Doyon and her husband Robert- and by one son, Henry E. Ravenhorst and his wife Marita.  She is also survived by six grandchildren - Mary Beth Gore, Thomas C. Adams, Laura Y. Ravenhorst, Kristina R. Campbell, Jeffrey P. Ravenhorst, John Robert Doyon- and five great-grandchildren.

The family wishes to extend their deep gratitude to the staff of Borden Health Care at Kendal for their exceptional care for the past several years, and to Carilion Rockbridge Community Hospital and ConnectionsPlus Healthcare + Hospice for their kindness in Dot’s final days. 

A celebration of life will be held at a later date.

Arrangements are by Harrison Funeral Home & Crematory.