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Dorothy "Mama" Moore, the 94-year-old leader of the tiny North ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ County village of Hillsdale for half a century, died over the weekend, a city clerk confirmed Monday.Ìý

Known as the "mayor" of Hillsdale, Moore was first elected chairwoman of the burg, wedged between Pine Lawn and Wellston, in 1975. Except for one year in the 1990s when she was defeated in an election, she held that role until her death.Ìý

Hillsdale is home to only about 1,500 residents, but Moore's political power stretched beyond village limits.Ìý

"It wasn’t about the size of the city — it was about the integrity of the woman and her character," former ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ County Executive Charlie Dooley said in an interview Monday. "She believed in shared leadership, that the only way you can have true involvement is to be a part of the system. And she made sure that people in the Normandy township got together and made things happen."

Moore, a native of Jefferson City, moved to the ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ area as an adult and ran a convenience store for decades with her husband, Elkin, before and after getting into politics. The couple was known for mentoring youths at Vashon High School, helping them find jobs and chastising them when they didn't go to school. Public figures, including legendary Vashon basketball coach Floyd Irons, a Missouri Sports Hall of Fame member, claimed Moore as a mentor.Ìý

Irons, now 78, said she advised him beginning when he was 13. That included a pivotal moment when, on break from college in Oklahoma, Irons considered dropping out of school. When Moore found out, she confronted him, pistol in hand.Ìý

"She said 'If you’re going to kill your future, let me help you on the way,'" Irons said Tuesday. "I didn't think she was going to use it, but she got her point across. It changed my life."  

Before it was absorbed by the Normandy School District, Moore also ran the Wellston School Board, and she was a coveted endorsement for Democratic political candidates across ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ County. Politicians made a ritual trip to Moore's small convenience story at 6500 Leschen Avenue, about a block from city hall, to seek her support.Ìý 

“At one point, if you wanted to get elected to anything in ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ County, you came to that little store on the corner, and you had a conversation with Dorothy Moore, because people trusted her," ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ County Council Chairwoman Rita Days told the Post-Dispatch in 2018.

Moore eschewed media attention and refused all interviews. She once tried to grab the microphone from famed retired ×îÐÂÐÓ°ÉÔ­´´ TV reporter Elliott Davis as he tried to ask her questions. And in 2023, seeking to avoid questions from then-Fox 2 reporter Mitch McCoy, Moore's driver, a city employee, ran over a KTVI cameraman.Ìý

Davis on Tuesday called Moore "one of the toughest" people he ever reported on.

When she tried to take his microphone, he was confronting her with allegations she improperly removed a disability parking sign from the home of a resident with whom she was feuding. Moore later signed a consent decree admitting she’d violated the Americans with Disabilities Act for not maintaining a disabled parking space near Bond’s home.

"Her words were 'You don’t know who you were fooling with.’ And I clearly didn’t, because she was really tough," Davis said. "I had met my match."

Even as municipalities around it began looking for efficiencies, Hillsdale remained stubbornly independent. Other tiny municipalities joined the North County Police Cooperative or contracted with larger departments for public safety, but Hillsdale held tight to its police department.Ìý

Some controversies followed. Two officers went to prison in 2015 for a heroin conspiracy. Another was arrested in 2016 for soliciting a prostitute. Recently, it was revealed Hillsdale was one of a handful of North County departments that had signed up for a controversial Immigration and Customs Enforcement program that deputized local law enforcement to find undocumented immigrants in exchange for financial reimbursement. Two of its officers showed up at a school in another district miles away from Hillsdale, drawing condemnation and questions from school officials and local political leaders.

Moore, though, stood by the program, telling the Post-Dispatch she had no problem with it but did not know details about what her city's officers were doing at the school.

"I haven't really looked at it because I've been doing so many other things," Moore told the Post-Dispatch in April. "I don't talk to them that much."

The village also continued to employ an ex-police chief from another North County municipality as he awaited sentencing for stealing $300,000 in taxpayer dollars from his former city.ÌýThe police department said Moore had promised to keep him employed if the court let him off without prison time.Ìý

Dooley, the former county executive, said the controversial headlines belied Moore's work over the decades to keep her small municipality a safe and affordable place to live for its residents.Ìý

"They didn’t have a lot of resources, but she said, 'At the end of the day, we can keep the city safe, our grass cut and our community clean,'" Dooley said. "And she did that."

Davis, the former reporter, said Moore survived controversy because she refused to back down.Ìý

"She loved that town of Hillsdale, and she would tackle anything she felt threatened that community, and she would not back down," he said. "I had to respect her."

In her free time, Moore continued mentoring youths. She was known for giving away winter coats, Thanksgiving turkeys and Christmas toys, waiting for the school buses with neighborhood children every day, and helping teenagers get their first jobs, said Henry Anderson, a former longtime principal of Wellston High School.Ìý

Anderson said Moore frequently called him asking him to check on kids she suspected of "playing hooky." She was right nearly every time, he said.Ìý 

"That was how much she loved those kids and wanted the best for them," Anderson said. "She knew her community and ran it with an iron hand." 

Moore's work running Hillsdale continued even after it was rumored she won $1.75 million in the lottery in 2017. The Post-Dispatch previously reported that the Missouri Lottery confirmed the winner was a Dorothy Moore, 85, of Hillsdale, and in a press release, the winner said she planned to use the money to help neighborhood children.Ìý

"In the neighborhood where I live, I try to do a lot for children," the winner said. "I go to the school bus stops with them, and if they miss the bus, I’ll drive them to school myself. … There are a lot of kids that need winter coats and other things that I always try to provide."  

But Moore never confirmed the winnings herself.Ìý

Dooley declined to comment on whether Moore ever mentioned winning the lottery. The mayor continued to live behind her corner store, in a small home with surveillance cameras, and manage day-to-day operations at Hillsdale City Hall.Ìý 

"I'll put it this way: She still lived in the same place, and in the 40 years I knew her, she never changed."

Moore's cause of death was not available Tuesday afternoon.Ìý

Minnie Hester, Hillsdale city clerk, said Bernard Ervin, a longtime trustee, has been named acting chair to replace Moore.Ìý