Dorothy "Dot" (Tracy) Geoghegan

Dorothy "Dot" Geoghegan, 101, of Cambridge, Maryland passed away on Monday, September 26, 2022, at Mallard Bay Care Center in Cambridge, MD, where she had been residing since February 2022. Born Dorothy Marie Tracy on April 2, 1921, in Newark, New Jersey she was the only child of the late Alice Young Tracy and Albion L. Tracy.

The family moved to Union, New Jersey a few years later where Dot attended the local schools and graduated from Union High School, Class of 1938. After graduation, Dot worked for the Board of Education as a secretary at Franklin Elementary School, during the summer months she worked for a local lawyer as a secretary.

During World War II Dot enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard S.P.A.R.S. in 1943, taking her Basic Training and then attending Storekeeper's School (Accounting) in Palm Beach, Florida. She was in Palm Beach for 5 months living at the world-famous Breakers Hotel which the Coast Guard had taken over for the duration of World War II. After her training, she was stationed at the Brooklyn Navy Yard Supply Depot in Brooklyn, New York, where she shared an apartment with three other S.P.A.R.S.  Dot was one of the thousands of people in Times Square in New York City on the day that World War II ended in 1945. She kept in touch with her U.S. Coast Guard S.P.A.R.S. friends over the years, all of whom lived into their 90s, and a few like Dot lived into their 100s, they really were the Greatest Generation.

On September 19, 1945, in Easton, Maryland, Dot married Claude W. Geoghegan whom she had met during World War II when he was stationed at Fort Dix, New Jersey, she then resigned from the Coast Guard, joining Claude in Pocomoke City, Maryland where he was already working. Their only child Barbara Jean was born in 1947, and in 1948 the family moved to Claude's hometown, Cambridge, Maryland. In the 1950s they owned and operated the Variety Corner Store on Choptank Avenue. After 15 years of marriage, they divorced in 1960.

After her divorce Dot worked for the State of Maryland in the Comptrollers Office in Annapolis, Maryland for a year. When Western Printing came to Cambridge, she worked in the Accounting Department, she retired from Western Printing after 25 years of service.

Dot was a dual member of American Legion Post 91 and the American Legion Auxiliary Dorchester Unit. For almost 40 years she was the Auxiliary Kitchen Chairman, back in the days when the Legion Home was the only building in town large enough to hold large banquets, she would hire the cooks, help plan the menus, order the food and make sure there were enough Auxiliary volunteers to help serve the dinners. Whether it was a dinner for 50 or a banquet for 300, everyone in Dorchester County knew when the Auxiliary was in charge you had a great meal at the Legion Home. She also held other offices in the Auxiliary, she oversaw the Girls State Program, where she would interview selected 11th-grade girls about going to Maryland Girls State for a week during the summer between their 11th and 12th grades. In the 1950s and 1960s, she oversaw the very active Junior American Legion Auxiliary program which had a large group of Baby Boomer members.  She also held offices in the Auxiliary's Eastern Shore District, Dot loved to drive and enjoyed her travels to District meetings all over the state of Maryland for the Auxiliary.

Dot was a member of Zion United Methodist Church in Cambridge, Maryland, and was on many church committees over the years, she was a member of the Crescent Class for over 50 years, and had been the teacher of the Crescent Class for 25 years. Dot was a member of the Dorchester General Hospital Auxiliary and did volunteer work at Dorchester General Hospital, she was a 50-year member of the Minerva Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, and a past member of the Cambridge Country Club. A lifelong Republican, she had been a member of the local Republican Women's Club.

After her retirement, Dot loved going to the S.P.A.R.S. reunions in Maryland and was amazed at how many former S.P.A.R.S. had retired to the Eastern Shore of Maryland from other states. She was able to attend a few of the National S.P.A.R.S. reunions, one as far west as Portland, Oregon, and another to the deep south at New Orleans, Louisiana.

Dot is survived by her only child, her daughter, Barbara Geoghegan Marshall, who she lived with for the last 24 years.

A private memorial service will be held at the Maryland Eastern Shore Veterans Cemetery. In lieu of flowers memorial donations can be made to the Zion United Methodist Church Endowment Fund, 612 Locust Street, Cambridge, Maryland 21613, or the Baywater Animal Rescue, 4930 Bucktown Road, Cambridge, Maryland 21613. Arrangements are in the care of the Thomas Funeral Home, P.A. in Cambridge.