Dortha Wilt

Dortha “Dot” Wensel Wilt, 96, of Coshocton, Ohio, passed away on Wednesday, September 10, at Kobacker House in Columbus, as the result of a stroke.

Dortha Jane Wensel was born on September 22, 1928, on the family farm near Oakland, Maryland, to the late Floyd Lee Wensel, Sr., and Bertha May Nicholson Wensel, the fifth of their eight children.

She was a 1945 graduate of Oakland High School where she participated in activities including Glee Club, Pen and Quill, was a cheerleader, and was school treasurer her senior year.

On December 11 of that year, she married “John” Harry Clayton Wilt in the rectory of St. Mark’s Lutheran Church in Oakland.

After living in eleven different towns in six states during the first several years of their marriage due to her husband’s job, they settled in Galax, Virginia. While raising their four children, Dot served as the Executive Secretary for the American Red Cross in Grayson and Carroll Counties. She was an active member of the Galax Firemen’s Auxiliary, Junior Women’s Club, and Jayceettes, including stints as officers including president of those organizations. She was a band booster for the Galax High School band when their two older daughters were involved in the band. She was also active in the activities of the First Methodist Church in Galax.

In 1966, they moved to Maysville, Kentucky, where she worked as a teacher's aide at Woodleigh Elementary in the Maysville Public Schools. She and Harry were also involved in the plays staged by the Maysville Players. She designed programs and usually worked backstage handling props and such but made an accidental “on stage” debut when she was caught on stage and ducked behind a fountain one night during a performance of “South Pacific.” When a tornado struck the nearby town of Dover, she donned her Red Cross uniform and volunteered her services to help the residents there get the help they needed.

Another job transfer took them to Coshocton, Ohio, in 1969. Dot went into the Coshocton City Schools as a library aide, starting at Sycamore, then moving to South Lawn. Years after she retired, she would run into students—long grown—who had great memories of the “library lady.” She developed an interest in family genealogy and, after learning the ins and outs of accessing records, helped to teach community genealogy classes. They were active members at Emmanuel Lutheran Church where she taught Sunday School, helped make noodles, and until just a few years ago, volunteered to do their Sunday morning radio ministry on the local radio station.

Dot supported her husband in all his civic activities. She was especially proud of his involvement with founding the Coshocton County EMS and, after his death, created a scholarship in his name to assist students in getting or upgrading their emergency medical training.

After retirement, she and Harry traveled throughout most of the US—missing only Hawaii and Oklahoma--as well as Canada and Mexico. They were hikers, campers, mushroom gatherers, birdwatchers, and participated in the West Virginia Wildflower Pilgrimage for many years.

She cared for her husband throughout his journey with Alzheimer’s disease, until his death in 2011.

Since March 2025, she has resided at the Primrose Retirement Community in Zanesville, Ohio.

She is survived by her four children: Claudia Wilt (Craig) Knippenberg, Pearl River, Louisiana; Barbara Wilt (Jeffrey) Lamp, Granville, Ohio; Jane Wilt Whitworth, Kitts Hill, Ohio, and John (Barbara) Wilt, Zanesville, Ohio, ten grandchildren, and fourteen great-grandchildren. She is also survived by a sister, Gladys Wensel Faherty, Swanton, Maryland, a brother, Donald Eugene (Patricia) Wensel, Silver Spring, Maryland, and many nieces and nephews.

She was predeceased by her parents, her husband Harry (after 65 years of marriage), four brothers and their wives: Laurence Lee (Janice) Wensel, Walter Howard (Eloise) Wensel, Ralph Clifford Wensel, Floyd Lee (Dianne) Wensel, Jr., a sister and her husband Mildred Wensel (Eugene “Barney”) Dunbar, and a brother in law William J. Faherty, along with her husband’s siblings Paul (Janie) Wilt, Elwood Wilt, Anna Pearl Wilt Pinion Marra, and Ellen Jane Wilt Hill Lewis and his parents Harry McKinley Wilt and Stella Adams Wilt, as well as many aunts, uncles, and cousins.

Her husband, her children and their families were the light of her life always. She was a great storyteller, and her family stories always had at least a kernel of truth in them. She will be so missed!

In keeping with her wishes, she has been cremated, and a graveside service will be held Saturday, September 27, at 11 am, to inter her ashes next to her husband in the Oakland Cemetery in Oakland, Maryland.

If desired, memorial donations can be made in her name to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America or the Harry C. Wilt EMS Education Grant Fund, Coshocton Foundation, 220 S. 4th St., Coshocton, Ohio 43812