Marguerite "Maggie" Helen HOLMES

Elizabeth J. "Bettie" Dodson, 80, an Oak Park native who learned to fly planes during World War II and later became the director of an association of percussion enthusiasts, died of cancer Saturday, Aug. 26, at her home in Houston, said her daughter, Pat. After graduating from Penn Hall Junior College in Pennsylvania, Mrs. Dodson began working at her family's business, Ludwig Drum Co. When World War II broke out, Mrs. Dodson decided to follow her brother and enlist in the Navy. She was stationed at the U.S. Naval Reserve Midshipman's School at the University of Notre Dame as a Wave, a Woman Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service. While there, she became interested in taking aviation lessons. The university, then all-male, at first refused but then admitted her because it could not deny enlisted Navy personnel access to classes, her daughter said. Mrs. Dodson earned a pilot's license but didn't do much flying after leaving the Navy when the war ended. She married a Navy lieutenant, James R. Dodson Jr., returned to the Chicago area and her father's company, and had three children. She eventually became the director of the National Association of Rudimental Drummers, a prestigious percussionists association that her father helped found. Mrs. Dodson's daughter remembered her mother as a quick-witted, outgoing woman who loved to tell a good joke. She lived in Barrington for almost 30 years, until she bought a condominium in Naples, Fla. About two years ago, she moved to Houston. Mrs. Dodson is also survived by two sons, J. Robert and Steven R.; a brother, William F. Ludwig Jr.; four grandchildren; and two step-grandchildren. A memorial service will be Nov. 4 in Naples.

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