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Mrs. Brigadier Doris M. Ritchie was peacefully promoted to Glory on January 11, 2002 from her home in Nine Mile Falls, a suburb of Spokane, Wash.
Doris Mary Pierce was born July 23, 1920 in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. Her family soon moved to Bellingham, Wash., where Doris grew up with her ten siblings.
As a youth, Doris was active in the Bellingham Corps and felt called to officership as a teenager. In 1944 she was commissioned with the Liberty Session. While single, Doris assisted in Kelso, Wash., and was corps officer in Port Angeles, Wash., and Los Angeles Southwest before her appointment to the Scandinavian work in San Francisco.
In 1949 Doris met her future husband, then Captain Alex John Ritchie, a widower and the father of two young girls, Iris Jeannie and Glady. They wed the same year. Their union was blessed with four more children: John, Edward, Mary Kathleen and Joan Marie.
The Ritchies served in corps appointments throughout the Western Territory including Billings, Mont.; Salt Lake City, Utah; Riverside, Pasadena, San Francisco Citadel, Calif.; and Spokane and Yakima, Wash. They were instrumental in the development of new corps facilities in both Pasadena and Spokane.
Doris and Alex spent their last five years of active officership at the Stockton Adult Rehabilitation Center. Following retirement in 1976, they served in ARC and ARP facilities throughout the territory.
Doris is survived by her two sons, John and Edward Ritchie; four daughters, Jeannie Chiaro, Glady (Lisa) Duplain; Kathy Burchell and Major Joan Doughty; 14 grandchildren; 12 great-grandchildren; 2 great-great grandchildren; 7 sisters and numerous nieces and nephews.
The memorial service was held at the Spokane Citadel Corps with Major Ben Markham officiating. Messages of sympathy may be sent to the family in care of Major Joan Doughty, 3173 Papala Street, Honolulu, HI 96822.