Dorothy Ravenell

Dorothy Elizabeth Washington was born to Marian Washington and Estella Bryant on a hot Sunday morning, September 20, 1925, in Beaufort, South Carolina. Dorothy was raised in South Carolina by her grandmother, Florence Green-Grant. During her early childhood, she spent time with her mother and grandmother in Beaufort as well as shared time with her aunts and uncles in Big Estate in South Carolina. She attended elementary school at Bethlehem Church and when she joined her father in Savannah, Georgia, she attended public school. 
She loved sitting on the porch with her mom, Estella, making dolls out of sweetgrass and laughing at her mother’s jokes. She was known to make flowers out of tissue paper that local people would use for weddings and funerals. All knew of her creative style. Her dad would send her boxes filled with outfits from New York every chance he had. Her grandmother, Florence, showed her how to make patterns by placing newspaper on the clothing received so that more outfits can be created and shared. She was happy. She would take Sears & Roebucks catalogs and she would design wallpaper and use flour and water to create a paste. She wanted to be constantly surrounded by images of people who were well dressed in magazines. Nothing made her happier than riding up and down those roads in Big Estate, South Carolina in her dad’s T-Model Ford.
When she was a young woman, her dad sent for her to join him in New York. She rode on a train sitting on her suitcase in a section that said, “Colored Only.” A southern girl, arriving in New York, with her dad having a preset job for her in White Plains. She looked forward to every weekend, meeting him at the Old Savoy, dancing with her dad to the music of Big Bands. While out with her sister and friends, she met her husband, Joseph C. Eggleston. They met and married and lived in the Bronx, as she would say “on the old Tinton Avenue.” Her greatest pride was the birth of her seven children.
In 1986, Joseph died and her family had all moved in new directions. She remained grounded in her faith, served as a Christian throughout her life, and her church was connected to her community through her volunteerism, worked to raise all seven of her children, four part-time jobs, and full time at Misericordia Hospital.
In the early 1990s, she met her new life partner, Frank Ravenell. He swept her off her feet, they married and moved to his hometown, Pineville, South Carolina. She became active in their church, Mount Nebo, sang in the senior choir, and served as an usher and a missionary. She joined the American Red Cross as a volunteer and was a member of AARP. She never stopped. As her sight began to dim, and her health began to fail, she found ways to help her community from her chair. When you called, she provided uplifting messages from hold to God’s unchanging hand, don’t give up, just press on. 
In 2019, she couldn’t hold on anymore and needed the community to hold her up. She returned to New York, still grounded in her faith until July 26, 2020, when she boarded Flight 1125 and sat in the first row behind the captain and made her way in. She was preceded by her son, Eric Eggleston, and her son-in-law, Theodore Simmons. 
She leaves to mourn Frank Ravenell; her daughters Joretta Simmons, Geraldine Hopper, Avis Ramona Eggleston, Verna Eggleston; her sons Bernard Eggleston and Phillip Eggleston; son-in-law John Hopper; her sister, Helen Smalls; brother William Kelly; her grandsons Terrace Hopper, Troy Hopper, Rashim Eggleston; her granddaughters Janay Simmons Morris, Brashayla Eggleston, Brashaunta Eggleston, Bershawna Eggleston; six great-grandchildren; and a host of nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends. 

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