Obituary of Doris Varner

Doris Adalee Varner, age 82, died in Houston, TX on Tuesday, the 20th of March, 2018 after a recent diagnosis of Glioblastoma.  The eldest child of Major and Mrs. Fred M. Cope, Doris was born and raised in San Antonio, TX.  She received her undergraduate degree, a B.S. in Nursing from Incarnate Word College and her master’s degree in Health Education from the University of Houston.  A Captain in the US Army Nurse Corps, Doris first served on the heart team at Santa Rosa Hospital in San Francisco, CA and was later stationed in the 43rd M.A.S.H. unit at Camp Mosier near Seoul, Korea.  It was in Korea that she met her future husband, Dr. Roy V. Varner, a Captain in the US Army Medical Corps.

Dr. and Mrs. Varner were married on January 30, 1965 in San Antonio, TX and they made their first home in Ft. Bragg, NC.  In 1973, Dr. Varner’s career led the couple and their three young children to Houston, TX where they prospered and remained for the rest of their lives.  Beginning in 1978, Doris began a decade of service as the school nurse at Grissom Elementary.  In 2001, Doris retired after serving for many additional years as the school nurse at DeBakey High School for Health Professions.

Preceded in death by her parents, Major and Mrs. Fred M. Cope, her brother Fred H. Cope, and her beloved husband Dr. Roy V. Varner, Doris is survived by her children Deborah, Roy, Jr. and Michael, her daughter-in-law Dominique, her grandchildren Grant, Danielle and Nicholas, her sister Evelyn Moore and husband Michael, and her sister Jocelyn Fullerton.

Doris Varner will be remembered by all who knew and loved her as a tremendously dedicated nurse, a loving wife, a phenomenal mother and one of the most devoted grandmothers this world has ever known.

In lieu of usual remembrances, and for those desiring, memorials in Doris Varner’s name may be directed to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 501 St. Jude Place, Memphis, TN 38105.