Doris H. Lockerman

Doris H. Lockerman died on Thursday, April 29, 2011, at her apartment at St. Anne’s Terrace in Atlanta.

Doris L. Hinkley was born on February 26, 1910, at Longdale Farm, near Edmond, South Dakota, to Mabel Eunice Ettles Hinkley and Edy Ledoid Hinkley. Mrs. Hinkley’s family came from Scotland but she had been born in South Dakota. Mr. Hinkley’s family came from Hinckley, Leicestershire, England but he had been born in Wisconsin. Mrs. Lockerman’s Mother contracted and died of “Spanish Flu” in a single day in the great pandemic of 1918 and her Father became ill and died sometime later, leaving her and her older brother, Clyve Wilson Hinkley, orphans.

She was adopted by Clarence W. Best who was the publisher of the South Dakota Press, Huron, South Dakota, and was the Senator for that district. Mr. Best had lived among the Indians after emigrating from Nova Scotia as a young man.

She attended grammar school and high school in Huron riding her horse to and from school. She was Valedictorian of her class and the only girl in her class to win a “Varsity Letter.” She attended Huron College on a scholarship and working as the secretary to the Dean, Dr. Beryl Rogers McClaskey.

In 1928, she married the Dean’s younger brother, C. B. Rogers, Jr. and moved to Birmingham, Alabama. C. B. Rogers III was born to them in 1930. In 1932, they divorced and she and her son moved to Chicago.

She worked in the FBI Field Office in Chicago during that office’s pursuit of John Dillinger, Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson and others. She, personally, identified Verne Miller – who had been the Sheriff of her home county before turning to the other side of the law. Melvin Purvis was the Special Agent in Charge of that office. She was the last survivor of the staff of that office and contributed to several TV documentaries, to the book “Vendetta” which was dedicated to her and to the movie “Public Enemy” in which movie she appeared as a character, Doris Rogers.

Allen E. Lockerman, Jr. was a Special Agent in that office of the FBI.

She married Mr. Lockerman in 1935.

She worked as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune in the Metropolitan Section. One of her first assignments was to interview Dr. McClaskey, her former sister-in-law and former employer, but then president of a sugar company

Allen E. Lockerman, III was born in1940 after the Lockerman’s move to Mr. Lockerman’s hometown, Montezuma, Georgia.

During the early part of the Second World War, the Lockermans lived in New Orleans and then moved to Atlanta in 1942.

She worked as reporter for the The Atlanta Journal and then as a columnist and Associate Editor of The Atlanta Constitution with Ralph McGill, Jack Tarver and Harold Martin. Her weekly radio and television programs were called “Let’s Hear Now” and “Let’s See Now.”

She was Atlanta’s Woman of the Year in Business in 1948.

She served as a member of the Board of Visitors of Emory University.

She traveled widely both in her work and with her husband, a prominent attorney, who died in 1977.

She was the author of “Maestro”; “The Man Who Astonished Atlanta”; “Devotedly, Miss Nellie”; and with Patricia LaHatte Langley of “Discover Atlanta”.

She was a voracious reader and generally read a book a day.

For fourteen years she resided at St. Anne’s Terrace in Atlanta.

She was a member of the Capital City Club.

Mrs. Lockerman is survived by her sons, C. B. Rogers III and Allen E. Lockerman III, by five grandchildren; ten great grandchildren and by many nieces, nephews and great nieces and great nephews.

There will be a memorial service in the Sanctuary at Trinity Presbyterian Church at 2:00 PM on Friday, May 13, 2011.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests a contribution to Visiting Nurse Hospice Atlanta.