Dorothetta Pettit Ernest, 83, a resident of Abilene, Texas, passed on April 21, 2023.
Dorothetta was born to Japson Pettit and Dorothy Pettit on August 20, 1939 in San Angelo, Texas. She graduated from Big Lake High School, Big Lake TX and received her Associates degree in Nursing from Texas Tech, Lubbock Texas and her Bachelor’s degree from Mesa State College, Grand Junction, Colorado. She met and married Henry Mason Ernest in Big Lake, Texas and they lived in Colorado, Wyoming, Southern California, New Mexico and Texas in their 61 years of marriage raising 4 children.
Dorothetta leaves as her legacy her children: Robert Henry Ernest, Mason Luin Ernest, Margret Ruth and Ronnie Ed Garcia, James Benjamin and Ratchanee Ernest. She also leaves to cherish her memory 6 grandchildren: Jason Conner, Bobby Mason Ernest, Jeremy Japson Ernest, Jazzmine Ernest, Vivian Mason Romano, and Tara Jane Ernest and 4 great grandchildren: Mya Zoay Kurzyniec-Conner, Aiden Conner, Elena Conner, Jeremiah Otero-Ernest. She has one remaining sibling, Roy Ben Pettit. She will be remembered by her children and grandchildren as a beautiful and generous soul.
She was preceded in death by her parents Japson and Dorothy Pettit and her sister, Margret Young, and brother Billy Wayne Pettit.
Dorothetta was a nurse until she retired in 1995. She volunteered as a scout leader, a softball coach, in her kid’s classrooms, with the Red Cross, with the Grange and with her church. She loved to read, play the organ and sign in the church choir.
Her funeral service will be at The Episcopal Church of the Heavenly Rest on May 13, 2023 at 10:30am with a luncheon and a celebration of life immediately following in Gerhardt Hall.
