Doris Mahaffey

Doris Marie Mahaffey (96) passed peacefully on Saturday, May 20, 2023 with her daughter Starla McCullar by her side. Doris (Duck) grew up on a small cotton farm in Texas, the middle child of seven siblings (Ola, Leroy, Norris, Juanita, Alvin and Nancy). For her parents, Roy and Iva, farm work, the Great Depression and droughts made the family work hard. Everyone had their role to play. As a young child, Doris learned to cook on the wood stove, care for her younger siblings and sew on a treadle sewing machine. She would tell fond stories of the family gatherings where they would roll back the rug, invite all the neighbors, play music and enthusiastically sing and dance! During the war, Doris worked as a typesetter, a job she loved and was sorry to leave when the men returned from the war, but their return led to her meeting a tall air force corporal (Don Mahaffey) at a local dance. After a whirlwind courtship, they were married on November, 11, 1945. They had two children (Patrick and Starla). Eventually she, Don, Pat and Starla set down deep roots in Toppenish, WA. The family attended Toppenish United Methodist Church, camped in the summer and when the kids grew up, Don and Doris enjoyed camping with friends. Doris was an avid gardener, and graciously received the Toppenish Chamber of Commerce “Beautiful Yard” award and she was proud of her work on the committee to get larger hanging baskets downtown. She advocated for herself and a few friends to be allowed to use the pool at a local hotel for water exercise and was dedicated to showing up regularly once they secured that win. She hated dust and loved babies. A hallmark of Doris’s life was love and that she never let the definition of family limit who she considered to be her family. Doris cherished the summers that her granddaughter, Jennifer, would come to stay with them and had an open-door policy on visits from those she loved. Families she counted as her own included the Winterhollers and Storys, with the Story kids (Tyler, Adam and Sarah) being a welcomed and loved additional set of grandkids. After almost 60 years of marriage, Don passed away in 2005. Shortly thereafter Doris moved to Living Care Retirement Center in Yakima, a community which she enjoyed immensely. As her health changed, she was moved to The Rose Schnitzer Manor at Cedar Sinai Park in Portland, Oregon to be closer to her daughter. Doris was the last living member of her sibling group, and was also preceded in death by her son, Patrick Mahaffey and husband, Don Mahaffey. She is survived by her daughter Starla McCullar of Portland, granddaughter Jennifer Star McCullar (Maxwell) of Seattle. Her laugh, smiles and hugs will be greatly missed. To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Doris Mahaffey, please visit our flower store.