Dorothy Elaine Holeman

Funeral services for Dorothy Elaine Holeman, 73, of Gilmer, will be held at 2:00 pm, Saturday, July 29, 2023, at McWhorter Funeral Home. Interment to follow at Pleasant Hill Cemetery. The family will receive friends 6:00 pm -8:00 pm, Friday, at McWhorter Funeral Home. Dorothy was born September 14, 1949, in Carthage, Texas, and passed from this life July 24, 2023, in Longview, Texas. Dorothy worked as a detention officer in Smith County for 9 years and then worked at Upshur County for 3 years until her retirement. Dorothy loved most everyone and made a difference in a lot of people’s lives. She was kind, giving and a “mom” to a lot of people who needed one. She treated everyone like she wanted to be treated and saw potential in folks when most people had given up on them. While working as a detention officer, she made a difference for a lot of paths she crossed. One of her favorite sayings was, “as long as there’s breath, there’s hope.” Before the grandkids, Jeff, Codi and Charlie were her life. Dorothy loved being a mother more than anything and worked as many jobs as she could to provide for her kids. (And as kind as she was, she was as equally terrifying if you mistreated one of them. Codi being her favorite.). Aside from raising her own kids by herself, she also took in kids who didn’t belong to her. She was an excellent listener with the best advice, but only if someone asked her for it. When the grandkids started coming along, Jeff, Codi and Charlie took a back seat to them. The light of Dorothy’s life was her grandbabies and all that stuff that she whipped her three kids for was now ok, overlooked and excused. If you ever went by to see Dorothy at her house, you’d usually catch her working in her yard in some fashion or sitting at her bar working a crossword puzzle of some sort. Dorothy left this world not owing anybody anything and that was the thing, aside from her family, that she was most proud of. Not many people could say that they paved their own way….working for, and acquiring, everything that they’d ever needed, or wanted, on their own. She was a woman of integrity and an example of what we should all strive to be. Those left to cherish her memory are her children, Jeffery Lynn Holeman; Codi Stanton (Dwayne); and Charles David McWhorter; siblings, Carole Barton, Gene Bunn, Joe Bunn, Jimmy Bunn, Ann Stegall, and Casey Bunn; grandchildren, Ashley Jarman, Sarah Rawls, Steven Holeman-Bailey, Lonnie Holeman, and Kolton and Timmy Sweaney; and great-grandchildren, Eden Jarman, and Lainey Rawls. She was preceded in death by her parents; and her brothers, Mike Bunn and Willis Bunn. Pallbearers will be Seth Jarman, Steven Holeman-Bailey, Lonnie Holeman, Kyle Bailey, Brice Rawls, and Chase Bunn. Please visit Dorothy’s online registration book at www.mcwhorterfh.com to leave a memory for the family

Dorothy Elaine Holeman

September 14, 1949 - July 24, 2023