Dorothy Nintzel
Dorothy Nintzel, known as Dos or Dossie, passed away Jan. 13, 2024, in her home in Whispering Pines, N.C., surrounded by her children and daughter-in-law.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., she moved to Freeport, Long Island, when she was 5 years old with her parents and two sisters. It was here that she discovered her first love, the crooner Frank Sinatra, whom she adored for her entire life. As a writer for the Freeport High School newspaper in the early 1940s, she and a classmate scored press passes to one of Sinatra’s shows in New Jersey. She peppered the singer with questions afterwards alongside members of other news organizations and as she was finalizing the notes for her article the Sultan of Swoon exited the venue and brushed by Dos, giving her a fleeting twinkle of his famous blues.
After graduation, Dos — a math whiz — spent her early career in Manhattan and on Long Island as an executive assistant at various companies including a stint as a computer for Yellow Book.
In the late 1950s, her brother-in-law, who was stationed in Great Britain with the Air Force, asked Dos to visit and spend time with her older sister, Ead, because he was often away on assignment. She happily accepted his invitation and sailed across the Atlantic on the passenger liner the United States. She ended up staying for six months and while in Europe traveled throughout the UK, France, Spain and Portugal.
Shortly after returning to the States in 1960, Dos met her second first love, Chub Nintzel, on a blind date and, after a whirlwind courtship, they eloped and were married in March 1961. They moved to the village of Sea Cliff on the North Shore of Long Island where she and Chub added Greta and Charles III to the mix and settled into family life.
Chub’s career in textiles brought them to Whispering Pines in the mid ’70s then returned them up north to Connecticut in the late ’70s. After enduring two teenagers and releasing them into adulthood, Dos resumed her career aspirations and worked for many years as an executive assistant for two neonatal doctors at Norwalk Hospital.
When Dos and Chub first retired to Chub’s ancestral home in Mattituck, they spent time boating and danced the Lindy, often with a gaggle of lifelong friends at North Fork Country Club. They also toured many of the national parks by RV with another equally adventurous couple.
The winters of eastern Long Island eventually drove Dos and Chub back to Whispering Pines in 1996. Here they made an additional set of close friends and enjoyed rounds of golf, dining groups and dedicated themselves to various volunteer organizations. Up until October of this past year, Dos was a copy editor for The New Pitch, she also was a longstanding member of Whispers, the Whispering Pines Garden Club as well as a weekly volunteer at the WP Thrift Shop.
Dos was preceded in death by her beloved husband, Chub; her younger sister, Joan Mackenzie; and her nephew and his wife, Peter and Martha McClean. She is survived by her older sister, Edith; her daughter and daughter-in-law, Greta and Cin; and her son and daughter-in-law, Chuck and Karen.
A celebration of her life will be held in Whispering Pines this coming spring and at a later date on Long Island. We’d like to thank all the hospice workers that allowed Dos to stay in her own home through the entire process.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations be made to First Health Hospice, which supported Dos and her family in the last months of her life. Hospice address: 150 Applecross Road, Pinehurst, NC 28374.
Online condolences may be made at bolesfuneralhome.com.
Services are entrusted to Boles Funeral Home of Southern Pines, S.C.
This is a paid notice.
