Doris D. (Kerr) Haynes

Doris D. Haynes, age 96, of Newark, Delaware, died on Tuesday, November 5, 2024, at home.

She was one of 13 children born in McClure, IL to the late Joseph Kerr and Ida Hickson Kerr. She is predeceased by her siblings, Marvin, Inez, Lucille, Joseph Raymond, Shirley, Gordon, Irving, Jane, Dixie, and John Richard, and survived by Alan Kerr and Joan Dahlm.

Doris attended school until the 8th grade, when she dropped out to help out on the family farm in Pulaski, Illinois. Having had enough of farm life by the time she was 16, she left home and moved to Cairo, Illinois to find work. That began her intermittent career as a waitress, which she loved and did with great pride.  Cairo is where she met her late husband, Brian Haynes, who passed in 1998 after 51 years of marriage.

Doris was an amazing mother who never heard the words, “I can’t do that.”  She did it all - from canning & freezing vegetables, fruits, soups and sauces, sewing clothes for her daughters and husband, cooking fantastic meals from scratch every day, to maintaining a beautiful home and yard. When a shed was needed in the backyard, she built it from the ground up with dinner table instructions from her husband.

Doris is survived by her three daughters – Gail Dunfee Wilson, Patsy Haynes Santowski, and her beloved “baby”, Karla Haynes Davis. In addition, she is survived by six grandchildren, Sam, Tabatha, Doris, Brian, Jessie, and Mitchell, 10 great grandchildren and one great great grandchild. She was predeceased by one grandson, Erick Dunfee.

A graveside service will take place on Thursday, November 21, 2024 at 1:00 pm at the Delaware Veteran’s Memorial Cemetery, 2465 Chesapeake City Rd., Bear, DE 19701.

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