Judith Dowling

Judith Dowling of Wilmington, Delaware and Cole’s Point, Virginia passed away peacefully on January 16, 2025, surrounded by her family. Judie was born in Clarksburg, West Virginia in 1937.  She was raised in Parkersburg, West Virginia where she attended Parkersburg High School graduating in 1956.  She then went to St Joseph’s Hospital School of Nursing where she graduated in 1958.

In the early fall of 1958, while on rounds at her hospital, she helped a man who had fainted due to the sight of blood. She was standing over him and as he came to their eyes met…it was love at first sight. That’s the day she met Harry Dowling, her husband of 63 years. Three short months later they married.

Judie started her new adventure in Baton Rouge, Louisiana where Harry would finish his Graduate School at LSU. In 1959 they moved to Marshall, Texas and she had her first son Bill shortly after.  In 1962 they had their second child Jon. She enjoyed Marshall for 5 years and made lifelong friends there.  Then it was time for Harry to be transferred to Wilmington, Delaware, where the family would reside for the next 60 years.

Judie, along with her brother Richard and sister Laura Jean, spent many memorable summers with their Grandparents on the Mathias family farm on Branch Mountain.  She loved to tell stories of growing up with her grandparents and farm life

When her sons Bill and Jon were finishing High School, Judie decided to get out of the house and took a job at Strawbridge & Clothier in the Christiana Mall. Some 40 years later she was still running into people that she worked with.

Prior to retirement Harry and Judie purchased an old cabin on the Potomac River in Cole’s Point Virginia. Harry, Judie and their sons spent the next 20 years fixing and renovating the cabin that they then called their summer home. For over 35 years two generations of her extended family grew up spending vacations and holidays at Cole’s Point.

Judie cared for her boys and her husband.  They will always remember she was their advocate and was determined to get them the very best care at the times it was needed.

Judie is pre-deceased by her loving husband Harry, her sister Laura Jean Swearingen, and her brother Richard Snodgrass both of Parkersburg. She is survived by her sons Bill and Jon and their wives Ramona and Andy, her grandchildren Sean and his wife Heather, Katy, Shannon, and Brayden. She is also survived by brother-in-law Andy Swearingen, sister-in-law Rose Marie Snodgrass, sister-in-law Betty Dowling, and 30 nieces and nephews as well as those who adopted her as a grandmother.

A visitation will be held on Friday, January 24, 2025 at 11:00 am with a service to follow at Chandler Funeral Home, 2506 Concord Pike, Wilmington, DE 19803. Interment will follow at Hockessin Friends Cemetery.