Eatonton lost one of its most prominent citizens on July 4, as Dorothy “Dottie” Anne Sprouse McClain, 83, peacefully passed away in bed at home on Madison Avenue.
Born November 2, 1941, in Charlottesville, Va., Dottie grew up with just one sister, Paula Lee Spradlin, who is now deceased. She is survived by her husband, Dennis McClain, and stepdaughters, Barbara McClain and Laurie Hardy, along with their husbands, Lynn and Allan, respectively, as well as seven grandchildren.
Dottie had no children of her own from her two marriages, including her marriage to Dennis on June 12, 1996.
Dennis McClain said he and Dottie gravitated toward each other after both divorced from their first spouses in the early 1990s. At the same time, both were very active with The Plaza Alliance for the Performing Arts (PAPA), producing local live theater productions in Eatonton at the end of the strip mall, where the Piggly Wiggly store now operates.
“It had 146 seats in it, and we did a bunch of plays in there,” Dennis said. “Dottie once figured it out that PAPA’s total number of plays it’s done is 80 — and she was basically responsible for them all.”
Dottie was a founding member of PAPA in 1978, as well as a founding member of The Plaza Arts Center (TPAC) Foundation, later serving as TPAC board chair from 200911, being elected director emeritus of The Plaza board, and serving as co-chair of The Plaza 100 committee.
Over the years, Dottie also was named Volunteer of the Year by the Eatonton- Putnam Chamber of Commerce, which later also called her and Dennis as co-Citizens of the Year, and she was recognized as a Woman in History as well as served among the trustees for the Eatonton First Methodist Church, directly across Madison Avenue from her beloved Plaza Arts Center.
Dottie and Dennis frequently collaborated on producing and/or directing live plays at The Plaza and Festival Hall in Greensboro, including working together in fall 2022 on “9 to 5,” based on the 1980 movie of the same name starring Dolly Parton, or most recently last November with “Don’t Dress for Dinner.”
In their work lives, Dennis completed 48 years with Georgia Power before retiring more than 15 years ago. In comparison, Dottie was a schoolteacher for 35 years, including 18 years at Putnam County High School, where she mostly taught history and geography.
Dottie holds a Bachelor’s degree in History, a Master's in History Education, an Education Specialist in History Education, and an ABD (All But Dissertation) in School Administration, which typically refers to a program in which individuals complete all requirements for a doctoral degree except for the dissertation and are working in school administration roles.
Dennis said Dottie was also named to the Georgia Professional Standards Commission for schoolteachers by the governor (though he admits not remembering which one), and she served for three years.
“She was super smart,” Dennis said. “I mean, this woman could answer 80 percent of Jeopardy questions even before the people playing on TV could.”
Dennis said the first indication he had that Dottie’s health may have been slipping came on May 13, when she suddenly slumped like she had fallen asleep on the couch while watching TV with him.
“She didn’t respond when I touched her, so I went looking for my phone and was going to dial 9-1-1, but when I got back, because I wanted to be in front of her while I talked to her, she just straightened up, so I hung up the phone,” he said. “She didn’t do it again that night. But then she told me the next morning that during the night, when I was asleep, she had two more episodes that she could remember. That’s when I said, ‘Well, we’re going to see Dr. (Kimberly) Phillips’; that’s her family doctor over by Putnam Hospital.”
Once there, the hospital performed a CT scan on Dottie, but no abnormalities were found, so she was sent home again.
However, the blackouts continued, so Dr. Phillips ordered an MRI for May 19 at the hospital, which revealed three tumors developing on Dottie’s brain.
From then on, Dottie and Dennis made several more doctor visits, but the prognosis was not encouraging, he said.
Dennis said Dottie had stopped drinking and eating, and it was all he could do just to get her to take some water and morphine she’d been prescribed that he placed under her tongue.
Meanwhile, Dottie’s college roommate, Marybell, had arrived from North Carolina to help out and provide comfort. Both she and Dennis were with Dottie when she passed away around 9 a.m. on July 4.
“Right now, I’m so busy, I don’t really have much time to grieve,” he added. “But I’m sure it’ll hit me soon. I’m just trying to do everything Dottie wanted right now.”