Dorothy N. "Dot" Ross

If you're one of the old cats down at the Frenchman’s Club biding your time to marry one of those cute Noel girls, you can close your tab. Aunt Dot has gone to her reward and finished laughing, loving, fighting, and living.

Dorothy N. “Dot” Ross, 96, of North Biloxi shed her chains on September 11, 2022 after a long battle with life.

She leaves behind so many who loved and adored her and a legacy of life lessons not taught in schools.

Some of her life lessons are: If you want to dive, tuck your chin. Everything else is just jumping; Watch your mouth; Lay your glasses on a stump so they don't get broken if you have to fight; If you want supper, don't interrupt my stories; Never skip dessert; Saying the rosary might not get you where you want to go, but it will make it easier getting there; If a little kid is around you, you’re supposed to be watching them; Do not touch the boat groceries.

There were few things she loved more than her family being crowded around her enormous dining room table. Passing dishes she crafted in her kitchen, her family presented personalities as diverse as the chairbacks around that plaza of plenty. She would excuse herself under the guise of getting something else to add to the spread but we all knew she was just off to get her camera for table photos – her most treasured memories enshrined on Kodak paper. Each person shows love in their own way. She spread hers with a smile and a hug and snapping her chewing gum when she thought she said something funny. Beyond the smiles and hugs was strength and in that she shared her most precious gift of all: being the strength you could count on when it was needed. She was the stone upon which smaller rocks cracked and shattered – the cliff against which the waves broke and if you needed her strength, she offered it unquestioningly.

Those of us left on this Earth are family and friends who mourn her passing. She leaves behind her brother, Joseph Noel; daughters, Margo (Tom) Rushin, Jane (Paul) Martineau, Mary Elizabeth (Chuck) Fountain; a horde of grand and great-grandchildren, nieces, and nephews of all ilk and cousins like you can't count covering most of the Eastern United States.

She will join her late husband, Capt. John B. Ross at that spot they always talked about. She will join her sisters, Mildred “Peachy” Cvitanovitch, June Butler, Betty Ortega; her mother and father, Herman “Buck” and Sadie Noel; and her son, John B. Ross Jr.