Dorothy McCleery Redding was born on May 14, 1927 in Cleveland, Ohio to Dr. John Maxwell McCleery and Pearl Mae Roe McCleery. Dee had a four-year-older sister named Eileen. Dr. McCleery specialized in tropical medicine for he longed to be a medical missionary in the South Sudan, which he did at Doleib Hill. Then the family moved to New Concord, Ohio where for thirty-five years he was the physician at Muskingum College and taught all the pre-med courses.

   In addition to Dorothy’s proficiency in art, she and Eileen enjoyed outstanding looks and voices, becoming well known for their duets and singing all over Ohio. Dorothy, or Dee as she was called, was quarantined for polio at age fourteen. That experience introduced her to her very own God whom she shared with far more than family. Her complete recovery came not only through her faith, but also from her brave spirit that included teaching life-guarding to the contingent of Marines returning from World War II. She graduated from Muskingum in 1948.

   She also followed her mother’s lead and went to Biblical Seminary in New York, and graduated with a Masters in Christian Education from Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary in 1951. She married her childhood sweetheart, World War II veteran Ensign David Asbury Redding on June 16, 1951, and started with him their family: Marion Telford, John Maxwell (Shari), David Mitchell (Bobbie), and Mark McCleery (Sarah), Sandy McIntosh (Fred) and, Rob Greene (Pam), Chris Way (Pam) and Ashley, and Jennie Tran. She enjoyed her grandchildren, SPC. Alexei
Lizanich, USAR, Katrina Hayes (Ryan), Danielle Dean, Alicia Redding Shipe (and greatgranddaughter, Ava Lyn Grace), Ian and Cameron Redding, Hannah, Kate and David Redding, Mary, Nancy, and Don McIntosh, Christiana and David Greene, and Ashley Way.

   With the modest legacy her father left her, Dee took the whole family to Europe not only for the fun of it but for the eye-opener it was. Over the years she took into her home and family and loved with all her heart more than twenty people; they barely stretched her bountiful table. All excelled in school and took part helping around the house. One of the children gently placed a chameleon upon her hair-do at the dinner table. Following the chameleon's jump to her sandwich a chase ensued that everyone respected after that. She taught music at the Chester Elementary School in West Salem, Ohio and art to private students who came to her, and at Florida’s famed School for the Deaf and the Blind. It only takes her laughter like her singing to bring her back to mind.