Dora Sue Oxendine Farmer

Dora Sue, a lifelong Democrat, is in her eighth term as President of the Knox County Democrat Woman’s Club.  In the summer of 2012, Dora Sue and her daughter Wendy Farmer McRight organized the Knox County Democrat Women’s Club.  This Mother/Daughter team, of President and Vice President worked tirelessly to help the Knox County Democrat Women become the great organization it is today growing the group from 12 members to 59 currently.   In the fall of 2017, the Knox County Democrat Woman’s Club was presented with two awards from the Kentucky State Democrat Woman’s Club for membership growth and outstanding programs. This was the 6th year that the group has won these 2 awards. In 2014, they began a scholarship program for a high school senior who is a registered Democrat.  Also in 2014, she organized along with several of her members the first ever Dr. ML King, Jr. Parade, prayer breakfast and commemorative program for Knox County. In November 2018, Dora Sue was elected to be the 5th District Director of the Kentucky State Democrat Women.

Dora Sue is a retired Elementary School teacher from Okaloosa County, Niceville, Florida, where she was active in her local Democrat organization as well as her local teacher’s union.  While teaching in Florida, Dora Sue was awarded twice for outstanding teaching performance and another award for outstanding literacy teaching.  Dora Sue taught grades K-6 for 24 years in the state of Florida.  She also taught 7 years in Kentucky and 4 years with the Department of Defense Dependent Schools, DODDS Germany. Throughout her teaching career, she developed and presented parent involvement programs as well as staff development programs.  She taught in a variety of settings including the self contained classroom, the multi-age classroom, Title I Reading and Reading Recovery. During her professional career, she also volunteered once a week at the Women’s Shelter in Fort Walton Beach, Florida.

After retiring and coming home to her native state of Kentucky, she now lives in the Oxendine family home located in a scenic valley near Barbourville.  In August, 2006, Dora Sue became the primary care giver for her elderly mother who was also a retired public school elementary teacher and cared for her until her death in 2010.  Now in 2018, she often drives her youngest grandson and granddaughter to take piano lessons where she takes lessons as well.

She has two adult children, Wendy and Billy Russ, who are both active Democrats as well as their spouses.  Surrounded by her four grandchildren, two boys and two girls, Dora Sue works to inspire them to live their lives by the principles upheld by the Democrat Party.

At this time, Dora Sue  is also Secretary of the Knox County Democrat Executive Committee and is a volunteer for the Knox County Historical Museum where she writes a weekly article called Museum Corner for three local newspapers in her area.  Dora Sue also volunteers at G.R. Hampton Elementary. Recently, she joined with the Barbourville Tourism Council in working on the Barbourville Main Street Project.  She is also reporting secretary for the Knox County Town and Country Homemakers Club.  In the fall of 2018, Dora Sue became a volunteer for Hospice of the Bluegrass in Barbourville.

In January 2017, after participating in the Women’s March in Lexington, Dora Sue worked to help organize Knox County Indivisible and helped plan three protest rallies in Barbourville.  She also sings with the area wide Regional Chorus from Barbourville.  For the last 3 years, she has served on the Union College Alumni Board of Directors.

Her  hobbies include,  working with her sisters on writing and gathering information for the Oxendine Historical Society, writing short stories, working in her flower gardens, reading, crafting and spending time with Russ, her husband of 51 years who is also a lifelong Democrat,  and other family members including  two sisters, one brother as well as her other extended family.  Dora Sue also practices yoga and meditation.

Two of Dora Sue’s 3 siblings are involved in politics.  Her brother, Bill, a lifelong Democrat, was up the county election of 2018 Knox County’s PVA,  and currently is Executive Chairperson of the Knox County Democrat Executive Committee.  Her youngest sister, Sharron is past President of the Kentucky Education Association and is now the Uni-Serve Director of a 6 county region.  Dora Sue and husband, Russ were both delegates to the Kentucky Democrat Party Convention in 2016 where they supported Hillary Clinton’s nomination for President.

In October of 2014, Dora Sue was inducted into the Union College Alumni Educator Hall of Fame.  In the fall of the following year, 2015, she was awarded the Susan B. Arthur Historical Preservation Award from the Junior Study Club of Barbourville. Dora Sue is a member of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Richmond where she is a member of the choir.

In the winter of 2018, Dora Sue, Sharron, her youngest sister and Linda, her middle sister joined thousands of other teachers both active and retired in a march on Frankfort to the Capital in an effort to save the teachers’ retirement pensions.  Dora Sue continues to be active in the Kentucky Retired Teachers Association.

Since January 2018, Dora Sue has been an active member of The Cumberland Chapter of the Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. The action group from Knox County has been working on The Fairness Campaign Ordinance. In December our Barbourville group collected blankets and donated them to area agencies that deal with the elderly and homeless in our area.