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Dot was born in Powell, Wyoming to Della (nee Rauchfuss) and Dwight Bender. She spent 10 years in 4-H during her early years, later saying that the skills of record keeping and sewing learned there were vital to her later success. She earned a Bachelor’s of Science in Liberal Arts from the University of Wyoming, in medical lab technology.
Back in Powell after graduation, she and her friends picked up a fellow classmate who was walking to town. That friend, Earl Newman Derry, would become her husband three months later, on Dec. 31, 1950. They were married for almost 70 years.
An unsuccessful season of farming in Wyoming spurred them to move to central Washington, where they lived for 64 years. It was in Yakima that they raised their five sons: Dave, Don, Dan, Terry and Dale. When the youngest was 5 years old, Dot went to work at St. Elizabeth Hospital testing blood. Dot served her community tirelessly. She was a Cub Scout den mother, PTA member and president, and was also involved in: Future Farmers of America, The Audobon Society, Bluebird Trail, Coalition for the Homeless, NAMI, Union Gospel Mission, Ye Olde Lighthouse Shoppe, food bank, and the Yakima Valley Genealogical Society. After retiring, Dot and Earl spent many happy years traveling around the country in their leisure travel van, doing genealogical research as they went.
As proud as she was to be a Daughter of the American Revolution and Daughter of the Union Veterans of the Civil War, she most treasured her beloved sons and extended family.
Dot died as she lived: with calm resolve and humor, surrounded by her precious family. Her ashes, along with Earl's, will be taken to Powell's Crown Hill Cemetery. She will be missed.
