Dorothy Elizabeth Fant Gross, born January 27, 1930, in Carthage, MS, died peacefully in the home of her daughter Phyllis Boyd in Clinton, MS, on September 17, 2017. Mother Elizabeth Cockcroft Fant, father T. R. Fant, brother William M. Fant, MD, sister in law Charlotte Fant, sister Elaine Noblin and brother in law Tom Noblin preceded her in death. She is survived by daughter Phyllis, daughter Deborah Gross Scott and son Timothy Gross as well as by her grandchildren Chelsea, Cameron and Nathan Boyd and son in law Robert Scott. She is also mourned by a large extended family that includes niece (Betty Roy, MD), nephews (Mike
Noblin, Steve Fant and Wayne Fant), their spouses and children and their children's children, close friends and a number of other people including great grandchildren on all sides, some connected by blood and all by heartstrings. "G-Mama" to her grandchildren and "MamaDot" to many others, Dorothy Gross loved greatly and was greatly loved.

Ms. Gross received a Bachelor of Science with Distinction from Mississippi College in May of 1960, while caring for her two small children and pregnant with her third. By 1977, when she received her Masters of Social Work from the University of Southern Mississippi, she was a working single parent with three kids. She taught school for several years and worked for the Mississippi Department of Human Services for 29 years.
Ms. Gross started every day with a cup of coffee and "The Word," followed by prayer and "a generous breakfast," her favorite meal of the day, usually thin crunchy biscuits with butter and blackberry jelly and a fried egg over easy. She painted and did crafts, loved quilting and cats (especially Manx), gardened well into her 70's and made the best tomato soup in the world. A voracious reader, she consumed five or six books a week and was famous in the family for reading War and Peace in her 80's and three separate translations of Les Miserables, just to see how they differed.

Her memorial will be Monday, September 25th at Wright Ferguson Funeral Home on Cynthia Street in Clinton MS, visitation starting at 10am and service at 11am. In lieu of flowers the family prefers contributions to help children with cancer through Julia's Grace Foundation. Donations may be made online at www.juliasgracefoundation.org or by mail to Julia's
Grace Foundation, PO Box 1081, Royersford PA 19468.