Dorothy graduated from Neligh High School in 1941 and later joined the Women's Reserve Marine Corps. She went on active duty in August 1944 taking her basic training at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. She was transferred to work at the Marine Depot at Camp Miramar near San Diego. PFC Ackerson was honorably discharged from that facility in January 1946. She lived most of the intervening years in St Helena, Oregon. Before retiring, she was office manager and medical assistant for her husband's medical practice for more than thirty years.