Dorothy Marie (Rathkey) Schattenkerk passed away Sunday, April 5, 2026, at the age of 94 in Winston, Oregon, of age-related causes surrounded by family.

She was born in Roseburg, Oregon in the old Perkins Building Hospital on October 10, 1931, to parents John J. and Amy Gladys (Watts) Rathkey of Tenmile, Oregon.

Dorothy was the youngest of three children after her two brothers Arthur and Eldred. The children were raised on the family farm in Tenmile, Oregon where their father was a machinist and operated a Shell Station and Shop from the 1920s to the 1950s. In that time, he also worked for Coos Bay Lumber and did machining for other businesses to make ends meet.

Dorothy attended Tenmile School from first to eighth grade and graduated from Roseburg High School in 1949. She earned a teacher's certificate and a Bachelor of Education in 1954 from Southern Oregon College of Education in Ashland, Oregon. She went on to teach primary grades around Oregon and retired in 1965.

Dorothy was both an indoors and outdoors child. She loved her two horses Old Danny and Lady (aka Ladybug), playing with her favorite dog Sammy, playing outside among the myrtles, watching Western movies and reading Western books, and swimming in Tenmile Creek. Dorothy was also very talented and skilled in pencil drawing, oil paint, watercolor, and illustration. Her favorite art subject was horses. She could illustrate a horse in action or performing any gait. Practicing piano and housework were well tolerated, but knitting or crocheting lap robe squares for the war effort was remembered as "Borrrring".

In 1951, Dorothy enjoyed being a Camp Fire Girls camp counselor for one summer at Camp Tyee on the Umpqua River near Elkton.

Dorothy met Ted Schattenkerk at college and they married in Albany, Oregon in 1955. They had four children. Ted graduated from Oregon State University in 1957 and worked for the US Forest Service, mostly in Oregon, from 1955 to 1973, and later for the BLM. He retired as a freelance botanist in 2009 at age 80. Ted and Dorothy traveled far, from Alaska to Baja and most western states where they visited family and friends while taking in botany, geology, and wildlife. Dorothy was active with the American Association of University Women, Camp Fire Girls, and took evening art classes.

In 1973, Ted and Dorothy moved home to Tenmile before moving to the Schattenkerk Farm in Brockway in the late 1980s. Dorothy kept busy with writing and art and teaching pencil drawing at Umpqua Community College for one term. She learned to drive in the late 1980s when she was in her 50s.

Dorothy was a lifelong member of the Tenmile Community Church, where she sang in the choir, cared for the bushes as a member of the Tenmile Garden Club, brought flowers to church on Sundays, taught Sunday School in the 1970s and 1980s, and, upon request, painted a Biblical mural for the church.

After moving to Tenmile, Dorothy was up to her elbows in gardening of all types. She canned and froze produce from the family farm crops and fruit trees. She helped at the Schattenkerk fruit stand, raised hay, sheep, rabbits, and beef cattle. Dorothy served as 4-H leader in geology and gardening and served on the Vo-Ag Advisory Committee at Douglas High School. Ted and Dorothy mostly retired from farming in the 1990s. They enjoyed attending Ted's annual reunions of the "Dog" Co. Korean War Veterans for about 20 years, went bird watching, and were active in the Umpqua Chapter of the Native Plant Society of Oregon until 2019.

Dorothy's loving family misses her terribly and cherishes her memory…

Survived by her four children Carol (Bob) Gutmann of North Plains, Oregon; Ed (Della) Schattenkerk of Tenmile, Oregon; Henry Schattenkerk of Vancouver, Washington; and Amy (Ron) Sutten-Schattenkerk of Brockway, Oregon; three grandchildren and their families, Mike (Tia) Schattenkerk of Tenmile, Oregon; Teresa (Patrick) Burcher of Cottage Grove, Oregon; and April of Brockway, Oregon; and four great-grandchildren Abilgaile (Schattenkerk) Parker, Emma Lill, Ellie Burcher, and Liam Davis; her sister-in-law Dolores Schattenkerk, and many loving nieces, nephews, and cousins.

Dorothy was predeceased by her husband Ted in September 2021 at the age of 92 after 66 years of marriage, her parents, her brothers Dr. Arthur Rathkey and Eldred Rathkey, and many other relatives.

Services will be held Saturday, April 25, 2026 at 1:00PM at the Tenmile Community Church. In lieu of flowers please donate to the Tenmile Community Church.