Obituary of Dorothy Angeline Frank Boschert Berndsen

Dorothy “Dot” Angeline Frank Boschert Berndsen arrived Home safe in Heaven with Jesus on July 21, 2023. 

She was born on January 15, 1939, in St. Louis, Missouri, to Matthew N. and Louise “Dot” (Matthias) Frank. 

Dot was retired after thirty-two years as cashier and head clerk at Safeway Stores, where her customers once voted her “best checker in town”. This event was documented by a photo of “Checker Dot” in the local Gazette Telegraph. Some of her customers were even faithful to follow her across town to shop whenever she was transferred to a new store. Many would even wait in her line because she was so genuinely helpful and kind to all. Some of her customers became life-long friends.

Dot was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, and great-grandmother. She was a devout Roman Catholic all of her life, and remained faithful to Jesus throughout her life. In her final hours, she was given visions of her heavenly home. Gazing all around at the ceiling, she said in astonishment, “someone has painted beautiful scenes all over the ceiling.”

She met her first husband, Kenneth Boschert, on her first day on the job at National Food Stores in St. Louis, Missouri. He was stocking the sugar on the bottom shelf when Dot was being taken around by the assistant manager to introduce her to the other employees. Ken looked up at her and quickly offered to introduce her around. When she saw him, she said she thought that he was a Greek god. It was love at first sight for both of them. She was a junior at Bishop DuBourg High School, while Ken was a freshman at St. Louis University on a scholastic scholarship. After she graduated from high school, they were married and had three beautiful babies, Bobby, Dotty, and Kenny. 

Sadly, Ken drowned in the Mississippi River at the age of 24. They had gone on a family beach outing at St. Charles, Missouri, after Ken had gotten off duty following a 24-hour-shift as a St. Louis firefighter. He had told Dot that morning, when she picked him up, that a brick wall had fallen on him while fighting a fire the night before. Suddenly, Dot found herself widowed at the age of 21, with three babies under the age of three. 

Dot met Laymon Joseph Berndsen at a USO dance in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1961. At the time he was stationed at Fort Leonardwood, Missouri, for Army training. He had driven with Army buddies to St. Louis for the weekend. While dancing together he asked her what she did and she replied, “I’m a widow with three babies,” but she recalled that he didn’t hear the widow part. She said the next dance he left and asked a blond to dance. She recalled telling her friend, Loretta, that she really liked him. Loretta told her “well then, go get him.” On their second date, Laymon proposed taking her three children for a picnic. Afterwards, he carried Kenny into the house and as he put him down he looked up at her and said “do you want to get married?” She thought about it a couple minutes and said “yeah!” And that was the beginning of over forty-eight very happy years together. She credited this miracle of finding Laymon to her prayers. 

Some of her fondest memories were as an Army wife while her husband was stationed in Europe and stateside. She later kept her promise to him that, once he completed his Army service, they would return to make their home in Colorado Springs to be “near his mountains that he loved”. Their honeymoon fishing trip was at Eleven Mile Reservoir west of Colorado Springs. Dot often reminisced how much she loved family times in the Colorado outdoors: fishing, hunting, skiing, and of course, shopping, shopping, and shopping some more. She really loved to “hunt” for special gifts for her family and friends. That was long before the advent of Amazon.com. In those days you actually had to drive to the mall to shop. Laymon, of course, was a big supporter of her hunting. He would drive her to the mall and patiently wait in the car while listening to the Colorado Broncos or Rockies game on the car radio. And she, in turn, supported his fishing and hunting outings. She would sit with him by the lake, or wait in the car reading her magazines, or taking a nap in the fresh Colorado mountain air. Once, on a successful hunting trip, her job was to carry the still-hot liver of the deer that Laymon had gotten. She said that she ran all the way up the hill to her car, with blood dripping down her arms, and when she threw that liver onto the hot hood of the car, it literally sizzled. Now that was true love!

Dot is survived by her siblings, Joyce (Dan) Messmer, Steve (Mary) Frank, and Matthew (Dorothy) Frank; her daughter, Dorothy Boschert; her son, Kenneth (Connie) Boschert; grandchildren, Jennifer  (Liz) Antognoli, Theresa Boschert, Laymon (Stephanie) Boschert, Christina (Trevor) Bogue, and Cody (Lacey) Boschert; and her great-grandchildren, Jake, Pierce, Luca, Laney, and Morgan.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Kenneth Joseph Boschert, on August 7, 1960; and her husband, Laymon Joseph Berndsen, on October 21, 2009. She was also preceded in death by her firstborn son, Robert Joseph Boschert, his wife, Gina, and his son, Dustin Robert Boschert, all in 2014; and her dearly beloved parents.

Per her wishes, direct cremation has occurred. There will be a Mass and rosary at a later date with burial next to her husband, Laymon Berndsen, and son Robert Boschert, at Pikes Peak National Cemetery in Colorado Springs, Colorado. 

For memorial contributions in our mother's name, these are some of the ministries that she supported on her widow’s mite: https://frcedric.org/, https://www.ccharitiescc.org/, https://www.bishopdubourg.org/

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Dorothy Frank Boschert Berndsen, please visit Tribute Store