Let's celebrate and remember the life of Frederica Dorene Matzner.

Born on 7/25/1957 ['Christmas in July' her mother always said]

Died on 7/4/2026 [her favorite holiday, second only to Halloween]

Service: 2:00 p.m., Sunday, July 12, 2026, Biggers Funeral Chapel, 6100 Azle Avenue, Lake Worth, Texas 76135.

Visitation: 1:00 – 2:00 p.m., prior to service at Biggers Funeral Home.

Interment: 1:00 p.m., Wednesday, July 15, 2026, Monroe Cemetery, Beverly, Kansas.

In lieu of flowers, Dorene would appreciate donations to your local or the national Humane Society.

Born in Independence, Missouri, as a toddler she lived in Kansas City before she and her mom moved to the farm in Tescott, Kansas. Dorene obtained her bachelor's degree in nursing from Washburn University in Topeka, her MSN as a Clinical Nurse Specialist from the University of Kansas, and a post-graduate master's certificate as an Adult Geriatrics Acute Care Nurse Practitioner from the University of Texas in Arlington.

Growing up on the farm she learned how to run a combine and to disc the wheat field after harvest, and to ride horses. Her nursing career in Topeka was exclusively at Stormont-Vail Regional Medical Center. In Texas Dorene practiced at three of the North Texas health systems as an RN and as an NP. She felt called to practice as an NP in Houston for 4 months during the peak of the COVID pandemic in 2020.

Dorene loved to dance, from a waltz to the Two-Step. She played the trumpet, piano, and violin. She and dear friend Dan were musicophiles, comparing notes on the 'deep' cuts of many of the musical artists she loved.

Dorene loved life, taking care of people throughout her 47-year nursing career, spending time with family and her four-footed children - 3 cats and a dog right now. She remarked that morning that being retired was hard work and counted on it easing up once she finished her own "Honey Do" list, which included starting a new flower bed, power washing the deck, and keeping up with her landscaping projects.

Dorene is survived by her wife of 28 years, Laura Cullen; her stepsister, Becky Cheney; her stepbrother, Scott Bogart; nieces, Amy and Jeana and nephew, Andrew; cousins, Don, Jerry, Roy, and Steve; her mother-in-law, Phyllis Cullen; brother-in-law, Tim Cullen; nephews, Connor, Quinn, Steven, and niece, Katie.

Dorene is preceded in death by her mother and dad, Doris and David Bogart; brother-in-law, Michael Cullen; and cousins, David, Gene, and Robert.

Dorene was a woman of God, rooted in the Lutheran faith. She recognized God's hand in a beautiful sunset, in starting an IV, and in the people who touched her life, however brief or long. Everything was a gift from God.