CAMDEN — Doris Liz Decker Dyer, 95, passed away October 11, 2021 at Windward Gardens in Camden, Maine.

She was predeceased by her husband, Milton E. Dyer, Jr., of Camden; her son, David L.Dyer, of San Francisco, California; her sister, Nellie C. Allenwood, of Searsmont; and her parents, Windsor Decker, of Islesboro, and Doris A. Sherman Decker, of Northport.

She is survived by her son, Jonathan T. Dyer of Augusta; daughter-in-Law Sylvia Poulin Dyer of Augusta; daughter Lesa A. Dyer Kitching of Thomaston; grandson Adam T. Kitching, of Thomaston; nephew Billy Allenwood, of Searsmont; and sister-in-law, Barbara F. Dyer, of Camden.

Doris graduated from Camden High School with the Class of 1944 and through the years she stayed in touch with her classmates and arranged class reunions. This is where she met her future husband, Milton E. Dyer Jr.

Milton signed up for the U.S. Army when the World War II began. Doris went to work in a factory to help contribute to the U.S. Army.

In 1947, she and Milton married at the Camden Baptist Church.

Later on, they had a home built in Farmingdale, where Milton took a job as a resident engineer of the State Highway Department in Augusta.

Doris was very active in her children’s education, participating in fundraising events for school, church in her community.

She collected proceeds for the Jimmy Fund and The American Red Cross. She was a Den Mother for the Cub Scouts in the community and had many activities for the boys to help achieve their goals.

Doris belonged to the Augusta Players, where she’d work on props and assisted with the players’ lines. In Hallowell, she did the same for the Junior Plays at the Bodwell House.

In later years, Doris began catering and became an estate caretaker for Camden and Rockport homeowners.

She was a member of the Islesboro Museum and she often visited to donate items, including those that the Gibsons had given her in earlier years to help set up the Gibson Era. 

Doris author a boo, My Childhood Dreams Living on 700 Acre Island. She was very proud and excited when her book got published. It gave her a chance again to look back at her past living the island life where her parents were caretakers for the home of artist Charles Dana Gibson and his wife, Irene Langhorne, the “The Gibson Girl”.

She and her family got to meet many famous guests of the Gibsons and one she remembers very well was President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

She use to take a boat to Islesboro to go to primary and middle school. During the high school years she and her family moved to Camden, where her parents took another job care-taking a home for Violinist Zlatko Balkovic and his wife.

She often remembered hearing him play his violin practicing for concerts.

In  recent years, Doris lived out her life in Camden at Windward Gardens in the skilled longterm and assisted living facility.

There she found a second family of amazing, loving and caring people. She will be missed. There will be no funeral, as Doris is going to back to Islesboro to be an Island Girl again.