Doris Butler Peters

Mrs. Doris Butler Peters, age 90, of South Hill, VA, died Thursday, August 17, 2023 in the Petersburg Home for Ladies. She was a homemaker and the widow of Virgil Lee Peters.

A visitation was held Tuesday, August 29, 2023, from 10 to 7 p.m. at Kinsley Mortuary in Marysville, KS.  The family received friends from 5 to 7.

A graveside funeral service was conducted on Wednesday, August 30, at 10:30 A.M. in Marysville City Cemetery.  A luncheon was held at the Evangelical United Church of Christ after the graveside service.

Doris was born as a granddaughter to homesteaders in rural Blue Rapids, KS, in the same house as her mother. Raised on a farm with four brothers and three sisters. She played basketball, babysat, and helped take care of neighbors and family in her youth.  She married Virgil, a young man fresh out of the navy, on December 7, 1952, in Marysville, KS. She followed him as the Union Pacific Railroad used him in Marysville, Omaha, Nebraska, Ogden, Utah. She made sure that their three children and husband always had a comfortable and safe home to live in. When Doris accepted a job with the Panama Canal Company, she even got on a ship bound for a foreign land. This brave woman had only known ponds, creeks and cattle troughs, what is now swaying to the waves for four days on a ship. While living in the Canal Zone, Republic of Panama, she took on many roles. Each with a destination of teaching, loving, and caring for children and her family. She was a den mother with the Cub Scouts, always active in church activities, held positions with The Easter Star, Rainbow Girls, and assisted with Virgil’s masonic lodge. Doris was a great cook. She cooked large dinners for Masons, the Rainbow Girls, church activities, which included weeklong camps at Santa Clara Beach, Panama.

Upon retiring in 1982 from the Panama Canal Zone, they returned to the farm in Kansas. There she became active in the community, church, and the local Moose Lodge.  Longing to be close to her children, they moved to South Hill, Virginia. There she maintained her church activities, community services, and became one of the founding members of “The Bread Box”. This is an organization that accepts donations and supplies food to many families throughout the community. As she aged, and the Bread Box grew, she stepped down to pursue a slower pace of community service.

She was always in love with her family and never met a child she didn’t like. Taking her places took so much time because she had to stop and talk to every child she could. A true servant to the Lord, her family, her church, and the community. It was an honor to be her children, her family, and a friend.

Mrs. Peters is survived by her daughter, Susan (Rick) Carroll, South Hill, VA; two sons, Stan (Laura) Peters, Pensacola, FL, and Scott (Terrie) Peters, Chester, VA; two brothers; Charles O. (Sandi) Butler, Jr., Englewood, CO, and Steve J. (Joy) Butler, Marysville; eight grandchildren; eleven great grandchildren; brother-in-law, Eldred Smith, Home, KS; and special caregiver, Sandy Hall; and her former daughter-in-law and friend, Lisa Peters.

She was predeceased by two sisters, Lilly Graham and Rita Smith; and two brothers and sister-in-law, Merlin Butler and wife Barb and David Butler.

A funeral service was conducted Thursday, August 24, 2023 at 5:00 P.M. in Crowder-Hite-Crews Funeral Home, and a visitation started at 4:00 P.M. until the hour of service. The family requests memorial contributions to be made to the “Bread Box”, P.O. Box 213 South Hill, VA 23970.

Crowder-Hite-Crews Funeral Home, South Hill, VA, and Kinsley Mortuary in Marysville, KS, are serving the Peters family.