Doris Ann Cutlip

Doris Ann Cutlip  

May 30, 1938 – August 22, 2024 

Doris Ann Cutlip (nee Bradbury) was born May 30, 1938 in Huntington, West Virginia.  Her parents, French and Verna Bradbury, called her their “miracle” baby.  After years of trying, they had all but given up on becoming parents when Verna gave birth to baby Doris at age 40.   Doris was their only child. 

Doris was always a curious person and passionate student. She graduated from Barboursville High School in 1956.  She continued on to Marshall University, where she graduated in 1960 and majored in art.  She was the first person in her family to graduate from college. 

For the next several years, Doris was an art teacher at Enslow Junior High School in Huntington, West Virginia.  She loved being a teacher, but was always honest about its challenges.  Throughout her life, when faced with any problem, she’d often say, “If I can teach a class of 8th grade boys how to paint, I can do anything.” 

While teaching, she also worked toward her Master’s Degree. She was just eight hours short of completing it, when someone came along and, as she put it, “made her a better offer.”  That someone was the man who would eventually become her husband, Perry Joe Cutlip.  The couple was introduced by Perry’s sister, and one of Doris’ fellow teachers.  After dating for a few years, they married on July 30, 1966. 

Perry and Doris began their married life in Plymouth, Michigan, near where Perry had taken a job as a plant manager with Dow Chemical.  True to form, Doris developed a lifelong friendship with the neighbors across the hall from her and Perry’s first apartment.  It was a pattern that would continue throughout her life and the couple’s many work related moves.  All in all, they had nine different houses in five different states.  And in each of those communities, Doris made close friends, and became part of groups and organizations that sought to leave wherever she was living better than she found it.   

After their two children, Melissa and Hansford, had left the nest, Doris and Perry retired to Dandridge, Tennessee in 2004.  While there, Doris was President of the Martha Dandridge Garden Club when they completed some major projects, including the restoration and improvement of a local historical cemetery. 

Their last move was to Erie, Colorado to be near their son Hansford and his family, as Perry began to decline from Alzheimer’s.  When Perry finally succumbed to the disease in September 2017, the couple had been married over 51 years. 

After Perry’s death, Doris moved to St. Petersburg, Florida, where she came to live, first with her daughter Melissa, and then in American House Assisted Living.  While in Assisted Living she returned to her love of art, began painting again, and attended (and sometimes taught) art classes.  

Doris was a daughter, wife, mother, grandmother, artist, teacher, and friend and embraced and excelled at each of those roles.  She will be dearly missed by all who knew her, especially her daughter Melissa, son Hansford, daughter-in-law Erika, grandchildren Rowan and Violet, and her many, many friends.  At the time of her passing, she was 86 years old.