Doris Pearl Flint

Doris Pearl Flint (nee Mitchell), age 89, died March 14, 2022, at home in West Chester, Ohio. She was born February 7, 1933 to Annie Pearl Mitchell (nee Allen) and Herbert Obry Mitchell in Durham, North Carolina. Doris grew up in Durham and graduated from Durham Public Schools. Doris loved growing up in Durham, near Irwin Mills where her parents worked. The “mill village” gave her a safe, nurturing community, including a piano teacher who prepared Doris for a lifetime of filling her churches and home with music. Doris was an active member of Durham First Wesleyan Methodist Church. She played piano and led out with her mellow alto, in church and for the church’s radio ministry, This is my Story, This is my Song. She wrote a book by the same title in 2007, pointing out defining moments when God directed her way.

In 1953, Doris left Durham to earn an associate degree from Central Wesleyan Methodist College (Southern Wesleyan University) in South Carolina. In 1959 she earned her baccalaureate degree in English Education at Marion College (Indiana Wesleyan University) in Marion, Indiana. For both colleges, she was an active member of musical groups that traveled and led worship in regional churches. At Marion, she met Lowell Flint the love of her life, and they married in August 1956.

Doris returned to the Southland with Lowell, and taught elementary school in towns where Lowell pastored, Bennettsville, South Carolina and Greensboro, North Carolina. In the churches, Doris was a church pianist, Sunday school teacher, and consummate hostess. Doris continued her music and teaching ministries in churches they attended in Illinois and Ohio and served in leadership positions including Missionary president and church board member. Doris served as pianist for services at Chesterwood Village West Chester for ten years. Doris has been a member of a church she loved, West Chester Church of the Nazarene, since 1983.

Doris enjoyed travel with Lowell, with her brother and his family, with her children, and with good friends. She enjoyed travel whether she stayed at a campground, a bed and breakfast, or in a European hotel. She enjoyed road trips, tour groups, and cruises, and nearly every trip included time at the beach.

We will always remember Doris as a woman of strong faith, of quiet strength, of simple joys, ever the encourager and with endless love for each member of her family. Being a wife and mother was the stronghold of her life. 

Doris is survived by Lowell, to whom she was married for 66 years. She is survived by her cherished brother Leon (Verna). Doris is survived by her three daughters (“the Flint girls”), Karen (Mike) Stipp, Kathy (Staycie) Flint and Lisa (John) Waters. Doris is survived by eight grandchildren, Brian (Elizabeth) Stipp, Amy (Stephen) Chiu, Carolyn (Rashad) Khaddaj, Bryce Flint, Angelica Flint, Katherine (Rodney) Morsie, Brittany (Derek) Smith and Alex (Laura) Waters. Doris is survived by 14 great-grandchildren, Isaac Stipp, Suzanna Stipp, Elijah Stipp, Rozalie Stipp, Beatriz Stipp, Marigold Stipp, Timothy Chiu, Joshua Chiu, Karina Chiu, Marie Morsie, Ava Morsie, Lemuel Combs, Jasper Combs and Willoughby Combs. Doris is preceded in death by her parents, by granddaughters Emily Claire Stipp and Evaleigh Claire Combs, and by Wendy Waters who she loved as a granddaughter.

Visitation will be Wednesday, March 16 at 10:00 AM, followed by the funeral service at 11:00 AM, West Chester Church of the Nazarene, 7951 Tylersville Road, West Chester, Ohio 45069. Rev. Alex Mahaffey and Rev. Dr. Robert Mahaffey will officiate. Interment will be Thursday, March 17 at Rest Haven Memorial Park in Blue Ash, Ohio. Memorials or donations may be made to West Chester Church of the Nazarene.