Meridian native Dottie Olmstead had eye for fashion, fun

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October 24, 2009

Anonymous The Meridian Star Sat Oct 24, 2009, 12:34 AM CDT

By Jennifer Jacob Brown

jbrown@themeridianstar.com

Tracy Olmstead Williams remembers her mother as fun-loving, dynamic, and above-all, fashionable.

"She really had impeccable taste and a great eye for fashion," she said. "She could make anything beautiful."

Meriam "Dottie" Spears Olmstead grew up in the Meridian area and, though she traveled the world as an adult, came back to her hometown every summer. Dottie passed away at the age of 78 on October 20 and was laid to rest here at Mt. Carmel Cemetery.

"She had very deep roots (in Meridian)," Tracy said. "After all of her worldly travel, she ultimately wound up resting in Meridian, and I think that's appropriate."

Dottie was born in Suqualena, and went to high school there before she married nuclear engineer John Bomley Olmstead and went off to take on the world and make it a more beautiful place.

Dottie's husband's job moved her all around the U.S., but their marriage ended in the 1970's when he departed for a long assignment in Korea. She remained in Miami, raising her three children there as an active member of the Coral Gables Country Club and one of its most enthusiastic ballroom dancers and opera-goers.

She worked as an interior designer, which Tracy said was perfect for her because she had such an eye for design.

"She's going to go up to Heaven and decorate," Tracy joked. "I know its perfect up there, but she's going to add her own touch to it... She was really one of those people who had a way of making things prettier, and it wasn't about spending a million dollars either."

Aside from raising her three children, Tracy said Dottie's proudest accomplishment was probably the jewelry design company that she started called the Olmstead Collection.

Dottie designed high-end jewelry, including her signature six and eight strand pearl necklaces, which she sold to Saks 5th Avenue and Neimann Marcus in Miami.

"There are a lot of her pieces that are out there in the world," Tracy said. "It was a certainly one of her proudest accomplishments."

Tracy remembers her mother as "game for anything".

"She was always ready to go and do something," Tracy said, "even when she got older."

Some of the things she most liked to do included dancing, acting ("Whenever you needed a girl with a Southern accent in Yankee towns, they chose my mother," Tracy remembered), sailing, gardening, and making hats and clothes.

When visiting Meridian during the summertime, "She would sew and make hats with her sister," Tracy said. "As a kid my cousins and I never wanted to go out and play. We wanted to stay in and listen to our mothers laugh and sew."

They loved to hear the laughter so much that is became one Tracy's favorite memories of her mother and aunts. "She and her sisters would laugh so hard and get so silly they would fall down on the floor in heaps," she said. "That's a wonderful thing to take with you through life is to know how to be silly and laugh - and these were serious women with jobs and work to do."

Tracy said her mother never spoke ill of anyone and knew how to have fun even while doing boring tasks like housework, blasting show tunes at top volume and singing into the vacuum hose.

"My brothers and I were very lucky," she said.

Dottie was a proofreader for the Meridian Star and Jimmy Rogers Beauty Pageant finalist in the early 1950's. At the end of her life, she moved to Gulf Shores, Ala. to be with her eldest son, Craig.

She is survived by three children, Craig Drake Olmstead, Bryan Keith Olmstead, and Tracy Lynn Olmstead Williams; six grandchildren; and one sister, Christine Spears Wilson.

She was preceded in death by five brothers and sisters. Her funeral service was held Thursday with James F. Webb Funeral Home in charge of arrangements. Family and friends are invited to sign the online guest book at www.jamesfwebb.com.

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