Obituary of Doris Kepner

Doris Mae Hartley Kepner, 89, of Roanoke, loving wife of 67 years, devoted mother of one son and two daughters, beloved grandmother, and friend to many, went to be with her Heavenly Father, Sunday, May 29, 2011. She is survived by her daughters, Ann Maria Kepner Jamison of Boones Mill; Amy Jo Kepner Boyette, of Raleigh, North Carolina, and son, Dan Fletcher Kepner of Roanoke. She is predeceased by her husband, Jack West Kepner, parents, Fletcher Garrett Hartley and Pauline Spenser Hartley of Chelyan, West Virginia; sister, Betty Jo Hartley Lee of Meridian, Mississippi, and grandson, Mark Jamison of Boones Mill. Doris was born in Logan County, West Virginia on April 15, 1922. She graduated in 1940 from East Bank High School in Chelyan, West Virginia and attended Morris Harvey College in Charleston, West Virginia. Following her college attendance, Doris met a young graduate of the University of West Virginia, Jack Kepner, in a community drugstore in Cabin Creek, West Virginia in 1940. Jack worked at Appalachian Power's Cabin Creek steam plant at the time as an electrical engineer. After engagement, Doris and Jack married in 1941 and settled in Cabin Creek where their first daughter, Ann, was born in 1946. After a promotion in the company and the birth of a son, Dan, Jack moved his family to Roanoke in 1949. The family resided on Richland Avenue in Roanoke until 1962, later residing on Round Hill in Roanoke, and finally the North Lakes section of Roanoke County. A Sunday School Teacher at Oakland Baptist Church for thirty years, Doris's greatest joy was her children and her home where she found pleasure in cooking for the family and sewing. Doris and her faily enjoyed traveling and taking vacations throughout the United States. She and her husband also enjoyed the many trips they took to White Sulfur Springs, West Virginia where they appreciated the amenities of the Greenbrier Hotel. The surviving families are: Ann Jamison and husband Wayne and their daughter, Holly Jamison; Amy Boyette and husband Tom, and their children, Eric and Allison Boyette; Dan Kepner and wife, Rebecca Shaner. The family would like to express appreciation to the entire staff of the Roanoke United Methodist Home and Gentle Shepherd Hospice for their tender care. Funeral services will be conducted 2 p.m. Wednesday, June 1, 2011 at Simpson Funeral Home 5160 Peters Creek Road by the Rev. Roy Miller. Interment will follow in Blue Ridge Memorial Gardens. The family will receive friends one hour prior to the service. Arrangements by Simpson Funeral Home & Crematory. 540-366-0707.