Ouachita County Louisiana Archives Obituaries.....ZEAGLER, DOROTHY W.  May 12, 2011
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Gina Brown http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006026 May 14, 2011, 6:19 pm

News Star World - May 14, 2011
DOROTHY W. ZEAGLER

Dorothy Zeagler passed away May 12, 2011. She was born May 1, 1925, to Railway 
Express Agent Willie E. Williams and piano teacher Ruby C. Williams in New 
Iberia, LA. Having lived in Natchitoches, Shreveport, Ruston, East Orange, NJ, 
New York City, Michigan, Kansas, Miami and Lake Providence, where she finished 
high school in 1942, she never attended the same school two years in a row. 
After completing high school, Dorothy moved to Monroe with her mother to 
attend Northeast LA Junior College, and then Southern Methodist University in 
Dallas. She married Everett B. Zeagler in 1946 and commented that she 
was "done roamin".

In her early years, Dorothy was a singer and dancer. She learned to dance in 
the same studio that Fred Astaire and Al Jolson did, in New York. At age six, 
in 1931, she performed on experimental television in the RCA building. That 
same year, she was one of three winners in the Paul Whiteman annual nationwide 
talent contest. Because of New York child labor laws, she was unable to join 
his show.

Upon returning to Louisiana, Dorothy and her sister, Mary Alice, began 
traveling from school to school, entertaining students who could pay the 
nickel or dime to see the stage show. Mary Alice played piano and Dorothy sang 
and danced. In 1935, the girls signed on as entertainers in the Will Harvey 
Todd campaign for U.S. Congress. They traveled the district with a hill billy 
band, performing on the back of a flat bed truck.

At age twelve, Dorothy objected to wearing skimpy dance costumes, chose to 
quit, and applied herself to serious study of piano and organ. While a student 
at Lake Providence High School, she taught private dancing lessons to younger 
students, earning her spending money and enough to buy her first bicycle.

Since moving to Monroe in 1942, Dorothy has always been busy as a church 
musician - pianist, organist, choir director, or handbell choir director at 
various times - in several local churches, as well as Selman Field and Dallas 
during World War II. She was organist at First United Methodist Church for 28 
years and choir director for seven years. Dorothy also served as choir 
director at Memorial United Methodist Church for seven years. Along the way, 
she found time to teach piano, build a business, raise five children, enjoy 
eleven grandchildren and five great grandchildren, while outrageously spoiling 
her husband!

Forever the entertainer, Dorothy enjoyed planning programs for whatever she 
was involved in - Sunday School, Musical Conterie, Fine Arts Club, church 
music programs, or family gatherings. She believed in always doing her best 
and offering her talents in any way she could. Dorothy loved to travel and she 
and Everett managed to see all fifty states and many foreign countries.

Dorothy was preceded in death by her parents, her siblings, and son Wesley 
Raymond Zeagler.

She is survived by her husband of almost 65 years, Everett Zeagler of West 
Monroe and four children, Fred, and wife Susan, of Baton Rouge; David, and 
wife Melinda, of Houston; Alice Langehenning, and husband Terry, of Canyon, 
TX; and Grayson, and wife Kristina, of West Monroe. Surviving grandchildren 
are Bryce Zeagler, Michael Zeagler, Rachel Merren, Cole Zeagler, Katie 
Zeagler, Angela Livingston, Thomas Pell, Jason Pell, Daniel Zeagler, Philip 
Zeagler, and Maria Zeagler and five great grandchildren.

Services will be held at 3:00 PM Sunday, May 15, 2011, at First United 
Methodist Church of Monroe under the direction of Mulhearn Funeral Home. 
Interment will be in Mulhearn Memorial Park Cemetery. Visitation will be from 
1:00 PM - 3:00 PM Sunday in the church parlor.

Grandsons will serve as pallbearers.

Memorials can be made to First United Methodist Church of Monroe or to a 
favorite charity.

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