Dorothea Lambeth passed away in Greencastle, Indiana, on July 12, 2026. She was 89.

Dottie was born on October 27, 1936, in Memphis, Tennessee, to Sophia and Milton Lambeth. She was the youngest of three children. The family eventually settled in Tupelo, Mississippi, where Dottie was briefly in the same middle school with Elvis Presley. She started taking dance lessons in Tupelo with Bob Simpson, which led her to a love of ballet.

After graduating from Tupelo High School in 1954, she entered the Dance program at Butler University in Indianapolis, where she also joined the Delta Gamma sorority. After three years of study, she returned to Tupelo to open her own dance studio. She completed her Bachelor’s degree in Elementary Education at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas.

On June 2, 1963, Dottie married Alan Good, whom she had met at Butler. Their first child, Tim, was born in 1965 as Alan completed seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, before they moved to Mitchell, Indiana, for Alan’s first church. Dottie started teaching kindergarten in Mitchell, and their second child, Karen, was born in nearby Bedford in 1968. They followed Alan’s call to a new church in Ottawa, Illinois in 1972. Dottie had been working on her Master’s degree in Education from Indiana University at that time, which she completed shortly after they moved to Ottawa.

Dottie was active in the Opportunity School program at the Presbyterian Church in Ottawa, taught dance classes at the YMCA, and continued choreographing for community theatres and other events. She took a job in nearby Marseilles teaching kindergarten in 1976, and taught in the grade school there for more than twenty years. She was a genius with young children; walking into her classroom felt like a miracle of intellectual growth and hope as the children responded to her expert guidance.

After retirement, she moved to Mattoon, Illinois for a few years, to be near her daughter, Karen Good Schuler, and her family. Subsequent to parting ways with Alan, she reclaimed her maiden name of Lambeth for the remainder of her life. After Mattoon, she bought a home in Greencastle, Indiana, where her son Tim Good lived with his family. She lived in Greencastle for nearly thirteen years.

She is survived by her brother, Larrie Lambeth, and her sister, Elizabeth Partlow, her son Tim and daughter Karen, seven grandchildren and one great grandchild.

There will be a memorial service in Greencastle at a later date.