website watertownhistory.org
ebook History of Watertown, Wisconsin
ebook
devoted to General Dwight Edward Aultman
This
file is under construction
Edith Hickok Doty nee Aultman
b. 08 15
1899 in St. Louis, Mo., d. 03 11 1994 in East Lansing, MI
Wife of Mark
Doty
[Bookmarked entry]
Army and Navy Register, 11 11 1922
The first military wedding under the new administration at Fort Benjamin
Harrison occurred Saturday afternoon at 4:30, when Miss Edith Aultman,
daughter of the Commanding General and Mrs. E. Aultman, and Lieutenant Mark H.
Doty, 10th infantry Fort Thomas Ky., were married. The ceremony was performed before an altar
banked with autumn foliage and draped with the national colors. Chaplain H. J. Ballentine pronounced the
benediction after Chaplain W. Roy Bradley read the impressive ring service of
the Episcopalian ritual.
Miss Aultman, gowned in lovely white crepe brocaded silver
and carrying a shower bouquet of bridal roses, approached the altar on the arm
of her father through an aisle of white satin ribbons held by wee Army
children. Her veil of tulle was caught
by an exquisite Oriental mantle high over a comb, giving a Spanish effect. Orange blossoms wreathed her head.
Her attendants were Anita, her sister, also dressed in white
and carrying Ophelia roses, and Miss Margaret Doty, a sister of the bridegroom,
gowned in white and carrying Ophelia roses.
They were met at the altar Lieutenant Doty and his best man, Lieutenant
B. Manuel, of Fort Thomas, and Lieutenant E. J. Hayes, Fort Thomas, the other
attendant. The orchestra of the 11th
infantry played Mendelsohn’s wedding march and through the ceremony played “Oh Promise Me.” The little ribbon bearers were Betty McNair,
a cousin of the bride; Patricia Parker, Jean Sullivan, and Henry Rexach
Jr.
A number of guests were from out of town, among these Mr. and
Mrs. Lynn C. Doty, the parents of the bridegroom, who motored from Athens
Mich., with daughters Margaret Mary and Esther; Mr. and Mrs. Grayson B. Mc Nair
and little daughter Betty, of Denver Colo., and Lieutenant J. M. MacMillan of
Fort Thomas.
The guest list from the post included Colonel and Mrs. Frank
Halstead, Lieutenant Colonel and Mrs. F. E. Hopkins, Lieutenant Colonel and
Mrs. J. D. Heysinger, Lieutenant Colonel and Mrs. Allen Parker, Miss Frances
Heysinger, Miss Frances Hopkins, Major and Mrs. John S. Sullivan, Mrs. E. J.
Sullivan and daughters – Miss Alice Sullivan and Miss Constance Sullivan, Major
and Mrs. Henry C. Rexach, Captain and Mrs. Walter F. Mullins, Captain and Mrs.
F. U. McCoskrie, Captain Harold K. Coulter, Captain and Mrs. Walter F. Mullins,
Lieutenant H. A. Brown, and Miss Helen Thorpe.
The bride's going away suit was a midnight blue tricotine,
topped with furs, and a small hat to match.
Following the ceremony Lieutenant and Mrs. Doty left for Cleveland where
Lieutenant Doty has recently been transferred as assistant professor of
military science and tactics in the schools of that city.
Source: Army and Navy Register, 11 11 1922
1990
At 91 she’s a teacher and a traveler
. . .
03 1990, Horton’s Country Reader, pgs 4-5.
"Get interested in something and
work at it," advises Dr. Edith Doty, 91, a resident of East Lansing,
adding, "Be interested in other people." She's a retired Associate Professor of
Spanish at Michigan State University.
But she still teaches intermediate and advanced Spanish as a volunteer
in the East Lansing Older People's Program at Valley Court Community
Center. Those of us who are in one of
her classes agree she follows her own advice.
The daughter of an army general, a
woman who as a little girl was once held for ransom by pygmies in the
Philippines, she says, "I don't think I'm interesting enough to
interview."
Dr. Doty learned Spanish before she
learned English. She went to Cuba at six
weeks of age with her father, then "Captain” Dwight Edward Aultman, and
spent the first eight years of her life there.
Her father insisted that only Spanish be spoken at home, saying,
"You can always pick up English later." The result for her was fluency in both
languages.
Her father, a West Pointer, became a
general in 1917. He became tenth in rank
in the United States Army. Later a ship
and a main highway in the state of Indiana would be named after him.
She traveled with her parents around
the United States while he served in the artillery. They were in San Francisco at the time of the great earthquake
in 1906. Her father was 34 at the
time and she thought of him as a superman.
When he came home from firefighting, his face showing exhaustion, and
collapsed on the floor, she was shocked.
At night the fires of San Francisco lighted up the sky. As she told story, she gestured and her eyes
reflected the horror. "I don't
think I've ever been so scared," she said.
As a child of 12 she was at the army
fort in the Philippines that later became Clark Field. It was there that she and three other
children were "kidnapped" by pygmies. They had been warned repeatedly never to go
off the military reservation, but they did and got captured.
It wasn't a frightening experience
for her because the pygmies were friendly.
Living in jungle areas nearby, they often came on the reservation to sell
air plants. The pygmies seldom had any
meat and were always happy to have the gift of a dead mule or horse. After capturing the children, the pygmies
demanded a ransom of meat. The army
happened to have a recently deceased horse and made a swap.
SHE LAUGHED AS SHE TOLD OF THE
EXPERIENCE
Dr. Doty laughed as she told of how
her children tease her about the experience:
"Which quarter of the horse were you exchanged for?"
Later she married an army officer,
Mark H. Doty. In 1941 when World War II
began, her husband and Dwight
D. Eisenhower were both colonels when General Hugh Drum, commander
of East Coast defense, took the two officers aside and said both of them would
be generals within a year.
Unfortunately, Lt. Col. Doty became
an invalid soon after as the result of a stroke. Remembering, a look of pain crossed Dr.
Doty's face. After they moved to Miami,
Edith, because of her proficiency in Spanish, found employment with the office
of censorship and became supervisor.
Later they moved back to East Lansing, where they owned a home dating
from an earlier tour of duty when Col. Doty was assigned to work with ROTC at
Michigan State.
At the age of 56, Edith Doty began
studying for her Ph.D. at the University of Michigan and she eventually became
associate professor of Spanish at Michigan State University. Her husband died in 1951.
Dr. Doty loves to travel. Although she's been on cruise ships, she
prefers freighters. In 1960 she took a
sabbatical and traveled around the world by freighter, spending 92 days aboard
ship. She liked Japan and, of course she
visited the Philippines. Michigan
University in Ypsilanti, has inaugurated driving through Germany (error in
original article). She bought a VW and
spent a month traveling alone. She knew
the language, which had been part of her course of study for her Ph.D. She also spent time driving the highways and
byways of France and other parts of Europe.
She loved the people of the
Philippines, Dr. Doty said, and she loved the tropical climate. She not only spent time there as the daughter
of an army officer, but returned later as the wife of one. Her second tour was 1931-34. Her youngest son was born there. She has three sons, thirteen grandchildren
and eight great grandchildren.
Dr. Doty loves to travel. Although she’s been on cruise ships, she
prefers freighters.
Dr. Doty enjoys travel in the United
States, especially in New England where she has a summer cottage on a lake near
Augusta, Maine. For many years she's
spent each summer there.
"It's peaceful and lovely and I
have so many wonderful friends there. I
wish I could put my East Lansing friends and my friends there together and
enjoy them at the same time."
Dr. Doty may have inherited her spunk
and, spirit of independence from her mother, Alma Aultman. For many years Alma Aultman was a columnist
for The New York Times under the name "Dorothy Stanhope". She entered the University of Oklahoma in
1929. She was 58. It was a daring thing for a woman to do at
that time and not everyone at Oklahoma was happy about it.
On a written assignment, a professor
gave her a lower grade than she-expected, a "B", while a girl student
sitting next to her got an "A" though her paper was profusely
marked. She went up to ask the professor
what she could do to get a better grade, since he had not indicated anything
was wrong with her paper. The professor
blew up, telling her "go back to your knitting and bridge playing."
When Alma Aultman graduated, the
president of the university signed her diploma while Mrs. Aultman looked over
his shoulder and photographers from the press recorded the scene. The woman graduate's picture appeared in
newspapers across the United States.
Today, as a teacher of older adults,
Dr. Doty doesn't like to hear excuses, such as "my memory isn't as good as
it was." She jumps on that lame
excuse with "you didn't study hard enough". Alas, she won't allow us one of the pleasures
of getting older, being able to plead infirmity of body or mind. "When I was younger, I could lift my arm
this high." Whoops.
We admire Dr. Edith Doty. She challenges us, compliments us, inspires
us, and occasionally gives us a well-deserved verbal rap on the knuckles.
Original
article, a pdf file
1995
DEATH OF, (b. Aug. 15, 1899, d. Mar. 11, 1995)
Yet to key in:
Edith A. Doty
, Ph.D.
East Lansing
Edith Doty of East Lansing, Professor
Emeritus, Michigan State University, died Saturday ………….
History of Watertown, Wisconsin