FRIENDS OF DORIS HOLD THE MEMORIES DEAR
She was 3 years old when her baby sister came home from the hospital.
"How long are we going to keep her?" Le Ann Tuggle asked her father and mother, Wilbur and Beth Spillers.
Forever, her parents told her.
Only it wasn't forever.
Tuesday, Le Ann drove from her home in Perry to the city cemetery in Roberta. There, a memorial marker has been placed for her sister, who is buried 108 miles away in Douglas.
Tuesday would have been Doris Spillers Worrell's 40th birthday. Le Ann went to the cemetery alone. She was dressed in purple, her sister's favorite color, and carried purple balloons.
She spoke into a tape recorder for 40 minutes Ð one minute for each year that has passed since her sister was born. Her heart was heavy. Her voice trembled with emotion. One day, she hopes to give the tape to her sister's three children Ð Amelia, 11, Alexis, 9, and Patrick, 4.
On a breezy Thursday, two days later, Le Ann gathered with others to mark the one-year anniversary of her sister's murder. On Sept. 20, 2006, Doris Worrell's body was discovered by her husband, Jon, at the sports/amusement park the family owned in Douglas. She died of a single shotgun wound about 11:15 that morning while doing some cleaning at the park, which was closed.
"She didn't have an enemy in the world," said Le Ann. "If it had been a robbery, she would have given them the money. She would have written them a check!"
The GBI is still investigating the shooting death. Last October, Gov. Sonny Perdue issued an executive order offering a reward of $5,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the individual(s) responsible for the murder.
Jon Worrell and his children have moved to Florida.
"We're still searching for answers," said a cousin, Deana Spillers McInvale. "We know God will give them to us in time."
Thursday, friends and family members wore purple clothes, purple bracelets and swapped "Doris" stories. At noon, they paused to pray. Candles burned in windows around Perry to mark the anniversary.
At The Westfield Schools, where Doris was a cheerleader and graduated with honors in 1985, purple balloons were released in the quadrangle near a memorial bench placed there this past summer. Later in the afternoon, a private memorial service was held at the cemetery in Roberta.
"We were like Scarlett and Melanie from 'Gone With the Wind.' " said Le Ann. "I was Scarlett, the headstrong one. She was Melanie Ð sweet, kind and thoughtful. We didn't always go about things the same way. But when it came to raising a family, going to church and politics, we saw eye-to-eye on everything."
Some called Doris the "Cartwheel Queen." As a child, she would turn cartwheels down the aisles of her father's lumber store in Fort Valley.
Three former classmates from Westfield Ð Lisa Hays, Mollie Tolbert and Deena Walton Ð claim they never heard Doris say an unkind word about anybody. She was smart and artistic. Her presence, her radiance, lifted those around her.
A Web site, www.friendsofdoris.com, was started to honor her memory and provide updates in the investigation.
They hold the memories dear.