Dorothy (Dot, Dottie) Elizabeth Moncrief, 95, died peacefully at her Brewster home surrounded by family on April 6, 2022. Youngest of four, born in Montgomery, Alabama in the 20s, and having lived all over the country during her 95 years, Dot has a rich and varied history with many amazing experiences.

From a young age, Dot displayed a talent for creating beautiful art. Encouraged by an art teacher, young Dot entered a drawing contest and won. As a young wife and mother, she sewed clothes, costumes, and all manner of home and holiday decorations. She created mosaics, painted murals, and made intricate needlepoint Christmas stockings. Over her many years, no matter where she found herself, Dot’s exceptional and varied artistic creations remained a constant theme.

Dot married Joseph Moncrief, a code teacher in the Army Air Corps, shortly before the end of WWII. As a young wife and mother, Dot and her family moved several times before landing in southern California in the late 50s. An avid square dancer, Dot, with Joe, spent many hours not only dancing, but leading and organizing various square dancing clubs in the San Fernando Valley. Always a homemaker, Dot entered the workforce in the 70s due to her husband’s declining health. During her working years, she was a lunch lady, a file clerk, and moved into data entry before she retired in the 90s.

Moving to West Virginia to be closer to family, Dot became very active in the Morgantown Senior Center, where she made many friends, traveled extensively, donated several pieces of her artwork, and painted a mural when the senior center moved into a new space. Since moving to Cape Cod to be with her daughter and son-in-law in 2010, Dot spent time volunteering at the Brewster’s Ladies Library, continued creating, including painting an amazing mural of a beach scene, and told the best stories of her youthful adventures, according to her great-grandchildren, who lovingly called her GG.

Dot will be greatly missed by her children, Elizabeth Joy Houghton, Joseph Todd Moncrief, and Jennifer Dee Dally, her two granddaughters, Erika Musselman and Shawn Thompson, and several great-grandchildren. Dot’s three siblings, Francis Lousie O’Dwyer, James Robert Bennett, and Alma Hazel Searcy Thompson predeceased her.

Services for Dot will be held privately.

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