Desmond Doss first wife: Meet Dorothy Doss

Desmond Thomas Doss was a US Army corporal who fought in World War II as a combat medic with an infantry company. He received the Bronze Star Medal twice for his actions in Guam and the Philippines.

Doss worked as a joiner in a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia, prior to the outbreak of WWII.

He chose military service on April 1, 1942, at Camp Lee, Virginia, despite being offered a deferral due to his shipyard work.

Doss had expected to continue his carpentry trade after the war, but the significant injury to his left arm prevented him from doing so.

Doss died on March 23, 2006, at his home in Piedmont, Alabama, after being hospitalized for lung problems.

Desmond Doss First Wife: Meet Dorothy Doss

He was the first one I ever kissed.” Desmond first met Dorothy, a fellow Seventh-day Adventist, at church in Lynchburg, Virginia when she came through from Richmond selling Adventist books.

By sticking by her husband’s side through thick and thin for 49 years, Dorothy Doss really exemplified the old adage “Behind every great man is a great woman”.

Dorothy was diagnosed and underwent surgery for breast cancer in 1982. Her health improved over the next eight years before rapidly deteriorating.

On November 17, 1991, the Dosses were on their way to the hospital for one of her regular treatments when Desmond lost control of the car. The vehicle plunged down an embankment and Dorothy was killed as it rolled over.