DOROTHY CLENDENIN, KNOWN HERE at SimanaitisSays as Editress/Wife Dottie, died peacefully on September 21, 2021, with family at her side at Hoag Hospital, Newport Beach, California She had suffered for a long time from COPD.
Dottie’s life was filled with adventure: She was born in El Centro, California, into a “ditchbank girl” tradition. After her father Joseph Kemp passed away, her mother Audrey Mae Kemp neé Klump and teenage Dottie moved to Orange County.
Disneyland was only three years old in 1958 when Dottie got a job working at Main Street’s Market House. One of the high points was having Walt Disney hold the door for her. She was a student in the earliest days of Orange County State College, now California State University, Fullerton. She fondly remembered a part-time job helping in publicizing the College’s Elephant Races of 1962.
Dottie was hired by Road & Track magazine in 1964, rose to managing editor, and worked there for 27 years. Her editorial adventures ranged from Japan to the Arctic Circle, including driving to Leningrad during the Soviet era.
Later, for 12 years Dottie was editor of Northern New England Journey, the region’s AAA monthly magazine produced by Southern California AAA.
Dottie is survived by her husband Dennis Simanaitis, her step-daughters Suzanne and Elizabeth, and many loving members of the extended Kemp family. Dottie was a lover of animals (her St. Bernard Max, a number of cats, including Second Timothy). Good thoughts and any donations in her honor could be directed to a cat-rescue organization of one’s choice. ds
© Dennis Simanaitis, SimanaitisSays.com, 2021