Doris Horder Stoddard Rich, 96, a long-time resident of Magnolia Springs, died of heart failure Friday May 2, 2008, in Birmingham.
She was born January 1912 in Chicago, eldest daughter of H.G. Horder and Mildred Rose Ohlman Horder. Her grandfather, Edward Young Horder, and her father, were principals in the stationery firm Horder Inc.
Her grandfather had been a frequent visitor to Baldwin County, beginning in the early 1900s, and had acquired property there. She moved to Magnolia Springs in 1943 when her first husband, Edward I. Stoddard, was called into the Navy. He died in February 1945 as a result of a Kamikaze attack on the ship on which he was serving near Iwo Jima, Japan.
In 1946, she went to work for Sidney Howell, owner and publisher of the Foley weekly newspaper, The Onlooker. Conducting an interview for the paper, she met Oscar B. Rich, a Foley native. They were married in 1947.
Beginning in 1946 and intermittently until around 1960, she was a reporter, columnist and sometimes editor of The Onlooker. From 1968-1970, she was head of public relations for Faulkner State College in Bay Minette.
She was a prolific writer and historian of South Baldwin County, and she contributed her voluminous files to the University of South Alabama archives. She wrote and published several books, including Fort Morgan and the Battle of Mobile Bay and When Foley Was Very Young. She was instrumental in the development of two cookbooks published by the Magnolia Springs Community Association.
Her second husband, Oscar Rich, died in 2005.
Survivors include four sons, Edward H. Stoddard of New Orleans, Thomas A. Stoddard of Birmingham, Robert A. Stoddard of Magnolia Springs, and Oscar B. “Brad” Rich Jr. of Merritt Island, Fla.; sister, Jane H. Yager of Winnetka, Ill.; brother, Edward J. Horder, formerly of Mobile; numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
