Born and raised in the heart of the Sheyenne River Valley, she was the middle child in the family with four lively sisters. She learned the importance of education from her father and gained a love of music from her mother. At age 7, she started taking violin lessons. Her father delighted in hearing his daughters play music together each Sunday. She had fond memories of playing with her sisters, cousins and friends, swimming on the Sheyenne River in the summer, ice skating on the river during cold winters and playing under the Hi-Line railroad bridge all figured into the idyllic days of her childhood. It was her father's wish that his daughters go to college in other states, believing that the experience of going to school away from home would be an education in and of itself. Specifically it was his hope that Doris attend Pomona College. Fulfilling this family wish, she went to Pomona College from 1939 to 1943, majoring in music. During her senior year, she dated Lee Bashore and became engaged as he departed to Chicago for officer candidate school. During a brief break in his training, they were married. When the war concluded, they bought a home in Narod, which later was known as Montclair, In 1950 they purchased a lot in the north part of Claremont and moved their house there. Nestled among lemon groves, they raised three children in a wonderful neighborheed filled with close-knit families, all becoming enduring friends. Active in the community, she was a longtime member of the Claremont Congregational Church, an officer in a PEO chapter, and played the violin in the Claremont Symphony Orchestra for many years, not giving that joyful association up until well into her 80s. In 2006, she and her husband moved to Arizona for health reasons, saddened to leave her friends and dear home, but able to enjoy closer association with her daughter, Nancy, and her family, who lived in Mesa.