Dorritt (Fowlkes) Howard was born August 14, 1910 in New York City, the daughter of Richard and Magdalene (Winfree) Fowlkes. She had an older sister, Rubinetta, born around 1902. Both of her parents were natives of Virginia, and her father, Richard, worked as an elevator operator in an office building. In 1920 the family (with the addition of her father's brother, Truley Fowlkes), lived on West 134th Street in Manhattan. By 1925 only Dorritt and her father Richard remained in the household. She later stated that she had completed three years of high school.
Dorritt married James Howard, and in 1940 they were living with his mother, Daisy on West 114th Street in New York City. James worked as a "maker of mops," his mother Daisy was a laundress, and Dorritt was the housewife. The household also included two lodgers.
Prior to her death, Dorritt lived in Far Rockaway, Queens, New York. Dorritt Howard died June 13, 1993, at the Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, and was buried on Hart Island.
Sources: US Social Security Death Index; US Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007; 1920 and 1940 US Federal Censuses; 1925 New York, State Census.