Dorothy Lee Jaeger (Cunningham) was born in Fairfield, Washington on July 2, 1926. She graduated from Washington State University and loved her pharmacy career for over 43-years, practicing in Washington and Arizona. She was married to her beloved Joe for 56 years and together they raised two children. The family moved from Spokane to Tucson in 1959, and after 1960, lived in Scottsdale and the East Valley. Dorothy never got used to the heat, and that served her well in later years when she reported having only one hot flash. On September 16, 2023, she joined her Lord Jesus and was reunited with Joe. When asked if she was looking forward to having her son join them in Heaven, she cautioned, “I’m not sure you are going to make it.”
She was a proud 75-year member of her college sorority Kappa Kappa Gamma and her professional pharmacy fraternity Lambda Kappa Sigma. Her favorite job was at Swedish Hospital in Seattle, WA. Before starting her family, she worked in Everett, Seattle, and Honolulu with plans to work in New York and then Europe. Polio struck her sister Lois and Dorothy dismissed her plans in order to, instead, help her parents care for her sister. It was in Spokane that she intended to fix a friend up with a fella she knew from her hometown, and on a whim, went on the date herself. That decision led to a lifelong love affair for Joe and Dorothy. The secret to their happy marriage? “Whoever mentioned the D-word got the kids.”
Dorothy is survived by daughter Julie Mason and son Brian J. Jaeger (JK Burwell), granddaughter and fellow KKG Courtney Mason Cowen (Spencer), granddaughters Joanna Jaeger (Jake) and Arista Chen (Taylor), grandson Andrew Chen, and many nieces and nephews who she adored. She is predeceased by her husband Joseph M. Jaeger, her parents Hanes and Alvilda Cunnigham, and sister Lois Roach. The family will gather in the spring in Fairfield, WA for a celebration of life. There, the couple with be buried together amid the farming vistas of their youth. In lieu of flowers consider donating to the Phoenix Rescue Mission, American Red Cross, or the Desert Botanical Garden.