Dolores Mary (Hoying) Shepherd passed away on May 15, 2016 in Viera, Florida.

She was born on March 22, 1928 to Aloys & Mary (Borchers) Hoying in Botkins, Ohio.

The family later moved to Celina, where she lived her formative years on East Fayette Street, and attended Immaculate Conception Church, grade school, and high school.

In 1945, she graduated from high school a year early, so she could enter nurse's training along with her older sister, Agnes. The two were Cadet Nurses in the U.S. Military nurse program. When she graduated in 1948, World War II was over, and the Army no longer needed nurses, so she became a Registered Nurse, and worked at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati. There, she married, and gave birth to her first and only child, Robert.

The young family moved to Poughkeepsie, NY where her husband was employed. When her husband obtained a divorce, Dee devoted her life to raising her son. She worked as a Registered Nurse at St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, where she became the head nurse of the Emergency Room and Clinic. Later, she worked for a private group of pediatricians, where she supervised the nursing staff, as well as the business office and laboratory.

In 1963, she moved to Croton-on-Hudson, NY, where she became the resident manager of a senior citizen apartment complex, with 515 apartments spread over 30 buildings. In 1967, she returned to nursing and children, as a School Nurse-Teacher in the Yonkers, NY public school system.

Over the years, she had continued her education, by attending college during the summers, and in 1972, received her Bachelor's Degree in Education (Health), followed by a Master's Degree in 1974. In 1975, she joined a new program at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, and graduated as one of the country's first Nurse Practitioners. Later, she was formally certified and licensed by New York State as a Nurse Practitioner in Pediatrics.

In 1977, she moved to the Albany, NY area, and became a School Nurse-Teacher/Practitioner in the East Greenbush Central School system, and in 1978, joined the faculty at New York State University at Oneonta, for several summer semesters.

In 1980, she was an Assistant Professor and Co-Director of the Nurse Practitioner program at the Upstate Medical Center of New York State University at Syracuse, but a year later, once again returned to her passion for children and schools, and practiced as a Nurse Practitioner at the Board of Cooperative Educational Services in Rensselaer, Columbia, and Greene Counties in upstate New York, until her retirement in 1993.

In 2000, she relocated to the East Coast of Florida, to be closer to her son and his family, and spent many happy years watching the ocean at her beachside condo.

Dee was predeceased by her parents, Aloys & Mary (Borchers) Hoying; brothers, Lawrence, Robert and Virgil Hoying; and a sister, Agnes Buening.

She is survived by her son, Robert and his wife, Roberta; her granddaughter, Christine; sisters, Rita Taylor, Sr. Mary Madonna, and Margaret Francis, and a brother, Rev. John Hoying.

A funeral Mass will be celebrated at Immaculate Conception Church, Celina, at 10:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 9, 2016, followed by interment at St. Marys Cemetery in Celina.

Arrangements are being handled by W.H. Dick & Sons-Hellwarth Funeral Home, Celina.

Condolences may be expressed at dickandsonshellwarthfh.com.