Lois Dickson

Lois Dickson
August 12, 2013

Lois Dickson of Cicero left to be with her Lord and Savior on August 12th, with her loving family by her side.

Lois was born in Pontiac, Michigan and graduated from Pontiac Senior High in 1952. She worked at Woolworth's during High School and upon graduation went to work for Michigan Bell Telephone Company as a long- distance operator.

She left there to join the Air Force in March of 1953. She received her basic training at Lackland AFB in Texas and was then sent to Hancock AFB in North Syracuse, NY, where she met and married a local fellow, Richard Dickson. They have been married for 59 years.

They first resided in an apartment where 81 passes through Cicero. Later they built their own house on a corner of the family farm on route 31 in Cicero. They moved there in September of 1962.

In 1971 Lois was diagnosed with lung disease, COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease). She quit smoking and wanting to know more about how to live with her disease, she enrolled in the Respiratory program at OCC. She graduated with an Associate's degree in Respiratory Therapy and worked at St. Joseph's hospital for 17 years before retiring in 1996.

Lois joined an internet support group in 1998 called EFFORTS (Emphysema Foundation For Our Right To Survive) and she helped to organize the first rally for COPD which was held at the Capitol in Washington, DC in 2000. This rally was very successful and helped to raise awareness for lung disease. She led two more rallies in 2001 and 2002. As the only Respiratory Therapist at that time on the support group, she helped many people to better understand their disease and to cope with the different aspects of the life-long illness. Her main goal was to educate the public about the dangers of smoking and lung disease.

She has written many letters to the editor which were published in the Syracuse Post Standard and a feature story was written about her life with "COPD/EMPHYSEMA and CHRONIC BRONCHITIS", which is now the 3rd largest cause of death in the U.S. She also belonged to another support group called COPD-ALERT. These groups can be found on the internet by googling the names.
Lois Dickson's interests in life were her faith in God, reading, flower gardening, camping in years past and mainly her children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. After retiring she brought her mother to Syracuse from FL and was care-giver to both her and her mother-in-law for 10 years.

She leaves behind her beloved husband (Richard Dickson), 3 children (Joseph Dickson, Mary), (Kathleen Dolbear, Marty) and (Lorieanne Byers, Eric), 13 grandchildren and 6 great grandchildren.

Lois was a hard working wife, a loving mother, a fun grandmother, a caring daughter-in-law and a devoted daughter. She was a pillar of strength for her family, she always made us laugh and she will be greatly missed. We love you mom/nan/great nan.

There will be a memorial service for Lois Dickson on August 25th at 2:00pm at Malden Road United Church of Christ in Mattydale. Contributions can be made to EFFORTS at PO Box 20241, Kansas City, MO 64195-0244.