Dorothy Marie Kail's Obituary
Dorothy Kail, 92 y.o., died Oct 1; beloved daughter of John & Edna Hyland, wife of Rondell “Bud” Kail, sister of Jack Hyland, all of whom predeceased her. Survived by no blood children, but by the Wm. & Bertha Joyce family, who welcomed her into their hearts and home and with whom she lived these past years. Also survived by dear & lifelong friend, Geraldine LaForest of Ishpeming. Vigil: Rudy Funeral Home, 25650 Van Dyke Ave, Center Line, MI, Fri, 10/10, 1pm to 9 pm, Chaplet of Divine Mercy sung at 3pm, rosary at 6:30pm; funeral mass Sat. 10/11/14, 10 am (Instate at 9:30 AM) at St. Mary, Our Lady Queen of Families [St. Clement Church], 25330 Van Dyke, Center Line, MI; Memorials: Eternal Word Television Network, 5817 Old Leeds Rd., Irondale, AL 35210-2164; Divine Mercy Center, 33826 Beaconsfield, Clinton Township, MI 48035; St. Bonaventure Monastery, 1740 Mt Elliott St, Detroit, MI 48207; Monastery of St. Therese, 35750 Moravian, Clinton Township, MI 48035; Right to Life, PO Box 901, Grand Rapids, MI 49509; or Michigan Humane Soc., 30300 Telegraph, Suite 220, Bingham Farms, MI 48025
.DOROTHY HYLAND KAIL
March 24, 1922 – October 1, 2014
Dorothy Marie Hyland Kail, was the second of two children born to John & Edna [nee Rieger] Hyland. She was born and spent her early years in Cincinnati, Ohio. The family took in boarders and Dorothy has very fond memories of one boarder, Bill, who frequently held her on his lap and told her stories.
The family moved to Detroit when her father, who worked for Western Union, was transferred to Michigan. She grew up on the East Side of Detroit, living in her family’s home on Emerson, in St. Martin parish. She had an older brother, Jack Hyland, who entered the Air Force as World War II broke out and was training to be a pilot when his plane crashed in a training exercise, killing him to the great sorrow of his sweet and beloved sister and their parents. The whole family was so devastated by his death that none of them spoke about him after he died. It seemed to be too painful to speak of. Jack never married and left no children. Dorothy completed high school and worked as a secretary, eventually becoming an executive secretary with Chrysler, where she met her lifelong friend, Geraldine LaForest, also an executive secretary with Chrysler.
Gerre tells of seeing Dorothy brown bagging her lunch at Chrysler and deciding one day to talk to her. Although Gerre usually went to the cafeteria for lunch with a group of fellow employees, she decided to pack her lunch and join Dorothy. She remembers Dorothy chewing on carrots for lunch. The day they began talking, Gerre had the feeling they would become great friends and so they did. Dorothy often joined Gerre and the others in the cafeteria for lunch, after their first brown bag lunch together.
Both Gerre and Dorothy enjoyed horseback riding and often went to Belle Isle to ride the horses. They were such regulars there that they got to walk the Tennessee Walkers. Dorothy and Gerre often gave the horses snacks of bits apples that they hid in their shirts for the horses. Dorothy and Gerre went to the Jack and Jill Dude Ranch once and they were given the opportunity to jump the horses. Gerre did not do that, but Dorothy decided she would. She jumped the horse three times, as Gerre wondered what she would tell Dorothy’s mother if Dorothy fell from the horse. She never had to do that as Dorothy did quite well jumping the horse.
Dorothy and Gerre also shopped together. But their shopping practices differed markedly. Gerre generally had in mind exactly what she wanted to buy, went to a store, found it and bought it. Dorothy, on the other hand, loved to look around – she especially loved to go to a nice thrift store and she had a gift for finding wonderful treasures at her thrift stores, but the search was what she most enjoyed. She was always a very classy dresser, and most of her clothing came from her thrift store shopping hunts. She did not like to go to a regular store and just buy something without first doing a great deal of comparison shopping. But despite that little difference, she and Gerre enjoyed many other fun adventures together -- like ice skating, walking in the parks, horseback riding, and just visiting with one another. They were also both charitably inclined. Gerre volunteered at St. Frances Home for Boys and Dorothy volunteered there at times also. One Christmas the two of them decided to help a church that had requested help cooking food. Neither Dorothy nor Gerre felt particularly skilled at cooking and when they offered to help, the church people told them to come in to help pass out the food on the day of the meal. When they came to help out, they were told the church had enough help and invited them to stay for the meal. They did so but they were both disappointed that their offer of assistance was rejected.
Dorothy met her husband, Rondell “Bud” Kail, at Chrysler, where he worked in the advertising department. They married on October 23, 1950. Gerre stood up for Dorothy when she and Bud married at St. Martin Church in Detroit, as Dorothy stood up for Gerre when she got married.
Bud was from Scio, Ohio and had served in the U.S. Army in the thick of World War II, serving in Normandy and Germany. He did not speak much of his service in the Army, but the records show he was honorably discharged as a staff sergeant in 1945. They also show that he may have fudged a bit on his birth date when entering the service, saying he was born in 1915, although it appears he was actually born in 1909.
We do not know a great deal about Bud. We do know that he tried to teach Dorothy to drive. As Gerre recalls, she advised Dorothy not to let her husband teach her to drive, but he really wanted to teach her. He gave her one lesson and that was the end of it for her. He had her out trying to teach her to drive. He told her to turn left next. He, of course, meant that she should turn onto the road, but when he told her to turn, she turned immediately and ended up on the grass. He apparently did not react to that as well as he might have and that was the end of the driving for her and after that one lesson, she abandoned all effort to drive and instead walked or used public transportation. Bud also nicknamed Dorothy “Charlie” or “Chuck” but how he arrived at that name remains uncertain. Gerre also grew to call her “Charlie” as a term of endearment. Dorothy seemed to like Gerre calling her “Charlie”.
Dorothy loved to walk and often walked for miles and she also loved running. She spoke of being picked up by someone on Kercheval when she was younger to go to work and said she often had to run to make sure she was not late for her ride, but she loved running. She greatly missed walking after she suffered a broken pelvis, a broken vertebra and ultimately a stroke in the last few years of her life. Later in life, when she and Gerre got together either in the area of Dorothy’s home or in the Upper Peninsula, where Gerre returned, Gerre did the driving.
Her husband, Bud, died in February, 1979, of injuries suffered in an auto accident down south. He returned to Michigan and Dorothy visited him every afternoon at the hospital. Her bosses at Chrysler were very understanding and allowed her to leave early so that she could be with him. Her friend Gerre had retired in 1975 after 32 years of service with Chrysler, just a few years before Bud’s accident and she visited him at the hospital when Dorothy was at work. We believe he was 69 when he died although we are uncertain as he has two different birth certificates, both dated May 1st, but one in the year 2009 and one in 2014. Dorothy made sure that he was dressed to the hilt in his best suit and shoes before he was cremated. She has kept his ashes with her since then. His ashes will be buried with her. Following his death, Gerre arranged to have a mass said for him at St. Frances Home for Boys and many people from work came to the memorial mass and service.
Her friend, Gerre came from a large family and they grew to love Dorothy as well and Dorothy grew to know and love them and to consider them her extended family. When Gerre retired she moved back to Ishpeming in the Upper Peninsula but they continued to talk daily on the phone and to visit one another until the visiting became difficult due to physical infirmities. At one time, Gerre got up at 5 a.m. in the Upper Peninsula and drove all the way to Dorothy’s home to visit her. On another occasion Dorothy wanted to visit Gerre and took bus up, arriving in the Upper Peninsula at 3 am. Gerre recalls picking her up at that early hour and taking her back to the bus stop when the time came for her return. Gerre very much wanted her dear friend to move to the Upper Peninsula where they could live together, but Dorothy balked at the thought of the cold, snowy winters in the Upper Peninsula. Dorothy made her last visit to Ishpeming in 2012 with the help of her friend and then housemate, Margaret Johnson. That trip brought great joy to these two lifelong buddies.
Dorothy and Gerre were truly like sisters and spoke daily on the phone until the very end. They also looked after each other and checked up on each other as sisters would. Once, after Bud had died, Dorothy had something wrong with her teeth or mouth and Gerre took her soft food that she could eat and checked up on Dorothy every day. The two of them often ate with members of Gerre’s family at different places. They frequently went to different restaurants they discovered along Lake St. Clair and Jefferson / Lakeshore Drive.
Gerre was also welcomed by Dorothy’s parents and says they were both very good people, hospitable and kind. Gerre recalls Dorothy’s mother inviting Gerre to lunch one day. She came into the dining room from the kitchen with two full plates of food and said, “If you don’t eat your whole plate, you won’t get dessert.” As she recalls, they both got dessert and Gerre became a member of Dorothy’s family as well. One day Gerre, who was rooming and boarding with her sister, Lil, took Joan, Lil’s daughter with them, to Dorothy’s home. Dorothy’s father made Joan laugh and laugh. Her father, who worked for Western Union, became ill and was bed bound on the second floor of their home. He had a little dog who liked to lie in bed with him. He had mints which the dog got to share with him on the sly. He was a very nice man.
Dorothy’s mother lived for a while after her husband died. Bud and Dorothy had purchased a small home, but when her mother became seriously ill with cancer, they sold the house and moved in with her to help care for her.
Gerre and Dorothy both recalled with great affection a man named George whose long time girl friend had died. Dorothy and George lived near each other and he often drove her places, including to Gerre’s home. When Gerre came to town, the three of them did a lot together and had a lot of fun.
Dorothy had a deep affection for animals, especially dogs and cats – most especially cats. As she and Bud never had children, her cats became her closest and dearest family members. Even later in life, she remembered each of them and their idiosyncrasies very fondly. Her animal adventures kept her life and the lives of those who inevitably grew to love her, very interesting.
Dorothy was a good and faithful friend. She was modest and somewhat reserved, with a surprising and delightful sense of humor. In 2003 or 2004, her life intersected with those of Margaret [Joyce] Johnson and Kathleen [Joyce] Kim and marked the beginning of Dorothy’s admittance into the extended family of William and Bertha Joyce’s children. William and Bertha Joyce, both long time residents of Center Line and both blind, were parents of twelve children, including Margaret and Kathleen. William died December 15, 1978 and Bertha died May 13, 2003, on the feast of Our Lady of Fatima.
Dorothy was living in the Center Line Plaza Apartments, a living situation that began as a temporary home while her husband Bud was still alive, until they found a home to move into. When he unexpectedly died in 1979, their temporary move became more permanent for Dorothy. Another resident of those apartments, Helen Kast, was a friend of Dorothy’s and a member of St. Clement Catholic parish, as was Dorothy. The two of them often went to church together and had breakfast or lunch together—frequenting Haney’s on Van Dyke or Firenze’s restaurants. Helen suffered a fall, which left her seriously debilitated and in need of 24 hour care. Her friend, Donna Fulgenti, who had been Bertha Joyce’s friend and banker, told Margaret and Kathleen of Helen’s plight and that Helen’s nephew was looking for someone to help Helen become as functional as possible while caring for her. Kathleen, an anesthesiologist, and Margaret, a lawyer and German teacher, who had just moved back to Michigan from Montana, decided to meet with Helen and see if it appeared they might be able to help her. After meeting with Helen, they decided to try to help her.
Dorothy was Helen’s good friend. When she learned that Kathleen and Margaret would be helping Helen, she made an appointment with them to let them know the things she believed her friend, Helen, most needed. Both Margaret and Kathleen were touched by Dorothy’s sincere and persistent effort to ensure that her friend received the help she needed. Dorothy, whose name means “gift of God,” was truly God’s gift to her friend, Helen, but most especially to Margaret and Kathleen, both of whom grew to love her. Dorothy, Helen and Margaret attended St. Clement Catholic Church together and sometimes to breakfast. Dorothy was a faithful friend to Helen and visited her every day despite Helen’s sometimes very cranky disposition and behavior toward her. Eventually, Helen moved back East to be near her nephew and his family. Margaret and Dorothy continued to go to mass together and sometimes to breakfast.
Dorothy also began coming to Margaret’s home to let Margaret’s dog Riley out while Margaret worked. She would leave little notes advising Margaret of Riley’s disposition that day and then would sit with Riley on the big, glassed in front porch at the house. She and Margaret continued to go to Church together, to have breakfast together with other Church friends on Sundays, to walk together at Dodge Park or elsewhere, to go for drives to see the Fall colors, which Dorothy loved – her favorite season, to go to plays or other performances together, to visit thrift shops together, where Dorothy inevitably discovered a treasure or two, or to watch movies together.
When Riley died they had a funeral for Riley in the family’s large back yard followed by a funeral luncheon at the Olive Garden. Within the year after Riley died, other friends at the Shrine of the Little Flower urged Margaret to consider adopting a stray black cat, who had been frequenting the Shrine, appeared to have come from a good home, and had been taken in by someone who could not keep him. Margaret ended up adopting the cat, who she named “Buddy.” When Margaret was going to visit her daughter in Hawaii, Dorothy agreed to take care of Buddy, along with her other 3 cats, Fritzi, Pippa and Sammy. By the time Margaret returned, Dorothy was very attached to Buddy and said Margaret would have to warn her before taking him home. Margaret left Buddy with Dorothy and visited him there, as Dorothy would spend much more time with him and lavish far more affection on him, than Margaret, with her working schedule would be able to do.
Approximately 5 years ago, as Dorothy became more frail, and new apartment owners wanted her to sign a new lease with provisions Dorothy did not care for, Dorothy agreed to move in with Margaret and share expenses. Margaret has often said that Dorothy was her best roommate ever – they truly enjoyed each other’s company and friendship. Dorothy enjoyed Margaret’s cooking and became an accepted and beloved member of the entire Joyce family and especially of Margaret’s children, Kirk and Erika, who had lost all of their grandparents.
In the past year particularly, when Dorothy required someone with her 24/7, the Lord put together a team of wonderful people, who helped Dorothy when Margaret was not able to be with her. They are Charlotte Miller, Laura Brian, Arlene and Theresa Leveque, Amy Collins, and, most recently, Melissa Lindow. We are all very grateful for the good and loving care given by each one of these people specially chosen by Jesus to help his beloved and sweet Dorothy.
Marsha Williamson of the Word of God Prayer Community in Ann Arbor, prayed with Dorothy and told her, Jesus kept saying, “My sweet Dorothy.” When Margaret would say to Dorothy, “You are so sweet,” Dorothy responded, “Yes, I am.” And when Margaret would tell Dorothy she loved her, Dorothy would respond, “Well, I am lovable.” And so she was and she will be greatly missed by all who knew her. She was a sweet presence and a joy to be with. She was anointed by her parish priest and given the Apostolic blessing before she died and we are sure she is back with her brother Jack, whom she always missed and wondered if he would recognize her – We are sure he did and does and that Our Good God is very pleased to have this beloved daughter with Him in heaven. Please pray for us, Dorothy.
What’s your fondest memory of Dorothy?
What’s a lesson you learned from Dorothy?
Share a story where Dorothy's kindness touched your heart.
Describe a day with Dorothy you’ll never forget.
How did Dorothy make you smile?