Dorothea Thompson Uzzell, 89, died on Charlottesville, VA, on March 7, 2001. Shortly after moving to Charlottesville two decades ago, though already retired, she became one of the founders of one of the city's fastest-growing churches. A small group of traditionalist Episcopalians meeting at her Wilson Court home in 1981 became the core of what is now All Saints Anglican Church on Ivy Rd. - one of the country's largest "continuing Anglican" parishes preserving the historic teachings of the pre-1970s Episcopal Church.

Born Jan. 10, 1912 in Plandome, Mrs. Uzzell was the daughter of NY architect Albert Thompson and his wife Adelaide. She developed a love of church music from early childhood and was also an avid swimmer and tennis player. She had three older brothers, all now deceased. Mrs. Uzzell graduated from Jamaica High School and took private singing lessons from the prominent NY vocalist Carl Deiss. She attended Russell Sage College in Troy, NY, but the Great Depression forced her to drop out.

In 1937 she married her LI neighbor William Cowan Uzzell - a marriage that lasted nearly six decades until her husband died in Charlottesville in 1995. She worked as an office manager and bookkeeper for her father-in-law's company, the R.S. Uzzell Corporation, a manufacturer and operator of amusement park rides. The family business took the couple to Montreal, Quebec, in the 1940s, but they spent most of their married life on LI after her husband became an electronic technician for Sperry Rand. They raised their two children in Queens Village and in Garden City. For the last two decades before her retirement Mrs. Uzzell was office manager for Frank Tran Corporation, a LI automobile parts wholesaler. The couple retired to Amherst, VA, in 1979 and moved to Charlottesville in 1981.

Active in choral music all her life, Mrs. Uzzell was a soloist for the Jamaica Choral and also sang in the LI Choral Society. She served in church choirs in all the places she lived. After moving to Garden City in 1961 she became the director of the girls' choir at the Episcopal Cathedral of the Incarnation; she is fondly remembered by hundreds of baby-boomer NY women whom she trained as teen-age singers. She was also an active volunteer for the Girl Scouts, the Cub Scouts, the NYS Conservative Party, the Virginia Republican Party and the Society for the Preservation of the Book of Common Prayer.

In 1995 Mrs. Uzzell moved into Our Lady of Peace, the Charlottesville residence for the elderly affiliated with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond; she also lived briefly at Mountain View Nursing Home in Madison, VA. As her health gradually declined she became the first person to live in all four sections of Our Lady of Peace: independent living, assisted living, the Alzheimer's Center and the nursing care center Though her cognitive abilities became increasingly impaired during her last two years, she retained her lifelong cheerfulness and vitality. As long as it was physically possible she continued to attend Sunday worship at the parish which she had co-founded nearly two decades earlier - often being driven by a rotating team of volunteer University of Virginia students. One of the volunteers told Fr. Glenn Spencer of All Saints that "driving Mrs. Uzzell is the high point of my week."

Mrs. Uzzell is survived by her daughter, Laura Uzzell Logie; a son, Lawrence Uzzell; two grandchildren, Daniel Logie and Deborah Pipes; and one great-grandson, Wyatt Pipes.

Her funeral was at All Saints Anglican Church on March 12. She was buried beside her husband in the graveyard of Uzzell Methodist Church in Smithfield, VA. Arrangements were made by the Teague Funeral Home, Charlottesville. Donations may be made in memory of Mrs. Uzzell to All Saints Church, 3889 Ivy Rd., Charlottesville, VA; Our Lady of Peace, 751 Hillsdale Dr., Charlottesville, VA; or Mountain View Nursing Home, State Route 230, Madison, VA.