Dorothy Mae Hayden Crowder Moore

Our amazing and beloved mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend, Dorothy Mae Hayden Crowder Moore, passed away on May 20, 2023 at the age of 91. She was an incredible woman of positivity, determination, and kindness who will be deeply missed by all who have known her through her 91+ years on this planet. While she lived several years on St. Georges Island and in the California, MD area on Town Creek, she eventually re-settled back in Abell where she was born and raised and lived nearby her sister Lois Justice and their family as a lifelong St. Mary's County resident. She was the daughter of the late Edward Howard Hayden and Pearl Quade Hayden of Abell, MD and was born in a fairly rough and hard birth on Feb 29, 1932 (yes on Leap Day), apparently barely surviving the birth. She was predeceased by her second husband Gary Moore and first husband Robert V Crowder, as well as her siblings Clare, Mary, Edward, Harriett, Josephine, and Jean and late son Brian. She is survived by her daughters Melanie and Gini, and son Jeff, their spouses (Larry, Mark, and Margaret, respectively), and grandchildren Fiona, Luca, Briana, and Kieron. Dottie, Nina, Mom, as she was known to so many of us, started work as a waitress at the tender age of 16 where she met her first husband Robert, who was a sailor in the US Navy during WWII in the Pacific theater. They married soon thereafter and settled on St. Georges Island next to Robert's parents, the late Gracia and Sylvan Crowder where they had their first child, Melanie. After the flooding of several storms and hurricanes during the 1950's, they relocated to higher ground in the Town Creek area of St. Mary's County and established a family of four with both eventually working for the Patuxent River Naval Air Test Center (NATC) in Lexington Park up until their final years of employment. After Robert passed away in 1989, Dottie met a man who liked to dance named Gary Moore and the two hit it off and eventually married and re-settled in the original Abell neighborhood that Dottie grew up in and her youngest sister Lois' family lived. They spent nearly every Saturday night going to dances and enjoying life on trips to other states, visiting friends and family, and even traveling overseas to places such as Ireland. Dottie loved family get-togethers, picnics, and crab feasts, often hosting these events at her house with all of her siblings and their families where they would spend the day eating, playing horse-shoes, and having fun. Dottie stayed busy in her retirement years by working outdoors and frequently would be seen cutting the ditches in the neighborhood with a push mower well past 70 yrs. old, even being recognized in the local county newspaper in 1997. She loved volunteering at the local Catholic grade school, Holy Angels, while it was in service and being able to help foster the little ones. She was a devout Catholic who regularly attended mass and volunteered cleaning the church at Holy Angels Catholic Church in Avenue, MD. She loved Christmas and the holidays and would spend weeks preparing decorations of the house and property. Her funeral will be a private gravesite ceremony for family members at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Bushwood, MD. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to Mother Catherine Academy located at 38833 Chaptico Rd, Mechanicsville, MD 20659. They can be reached at 301-884-3165 or Mother Catherine Academy online.

Dorothy Mae Hayden Crowder Moore

February 29, 1932 - May 20, 2023