Later Years
Fay married singer/actor Tex Ritter on June 14, 1941; the marriage ended at his death January 2, 1974. They had two sons, Thomas and John, a well known comedic actor. Among her grandchildren is actor Jason Ritter.
Fay made several more movies after she and Ritter married, but then retired from show business in late 1941. In 1965, she and Ritter moved to Nashville, because of his singing and recording career. For a time, she was an official greeter at the Grand Ole Opry. She returned to Southern California in 1981. Fay turned down several offers to return to movie work, including an opportunity to appear on the television series The Love Boat playing the mother of real-life son, John. But she was a frequent guest at Western movie conventions.
In 1987, Fay suffered a stroke that impacted her speech. She moved to the Motion Picture & Television Country House and Hospital in Woodland Hills, California, in 1989. In August 2001, her death was mistakenly reported in the obituary section of The Daily Telegraph in London. This reportedly happened when a nurse at the Motion Picture Hospital returned after a holiday to find her not in her room. When told that she had "gone," as she had, but only to another wing, the nurse promptly called one of Dorothy Fay's friends, who happened to be a regular contributor to the Telegraph obituaries desk. Fay and her family found the blunder amusing and took it in good sport.
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