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Note: Because of the remoteness of the ranch where she was born and grew up, Alice did not attend a public school until she was 17 years of age. Her formal schooling came at the hands of such people as Lola Neel and Margaret Tracy who as young woman came to the ranch to teach "the girls" (Rose, Alice, Edith). In spite of this, or more probably because of the good education she received at the hands of such people, she became a school teacher herself and taught elementary school most of her adult life. She attended the New Mexico Normal School, later New Mexico Highlands University, until she could obtain a teacher's certificate. Alice spent every other summer studying at New Mexico Highlands University or Western New Mexico University for many years. She finally received her Bachelor of Science Degree at Western New Mexico University in 1948, the year her son, Robert, graduated from high school. She taught elementary grades in Kirtland, in San Juan County until 1943 and then in Hanover, and Bayard, in Grant County, New Mexico. After her retirement from the public schools in 1962, she taught at St, Catherine's parochial school in Sante Fe and at Annunciation School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At Kirtland, she was a single, working mother teaching grades 4,5,6,7 at various times. She walked the three miles to the school each day. She always was able to hire some adult woman to attend her two pre-school age children. When the children were of school age, she took them to school with her. Although Rose Marie was unable to keep up with her school mates in the classroom, she was able to develop the normal social amenities through her classroom associations. Alice met her first husband, Ray Neel, through Ray's sister, Lola Neel Arnold. Alice and Ray lived in Albuquerque. They were separated soon after Robert was born and divorced in 1940. Alice then married her childhood sweetheart, Eugene Dockwiller. Gene had grown up on the Dockwiller ranch, later known as Honey Boy Haven, in the Pecos high country near the Arnold ranch. At the time of his marriage to Alice, Eugene had two sons, Eugene, Jr., and Stanley, by a previous marriage. Alice lived in Albuquerque near her son Robert from about 1965 until her death in 1972. Her main challenges in life were the care of her daughter, Rose Marie, who was mentally handicapped from childhood and the education of her son Robert. Both were accomplished through great patience and fortitude. Her main pleasures in her later life were her three grandchildren, Richard, Vickie, and Deanna Neel whom she loved dearly. Alice is buried near her father and mother in the IOOF Cemetery on Cerillos Road in Santa Fe.
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