Dolores Zimmer

A funeral service will be held Thursday, October 9, 2014 at 10:30 am at First Lutheran Church in West Okoboji. Burial will be at Riverside Cemetery in Spencer. Visitation will be Wednesday, October 8th from 5-7pm at Turner Jenness Funeral Home in Milford. Dolores (Lorie) Darlene (VanHouten) Zimmer was born October 5, 1928 in Ponca, Nebraska to Arnold and Alma (Heckathorn) VanHouten. She had two sisters Charlotte (Norman Halverson) and Genieve (Merlin Bertness). She lived in Nebraska moving to the Greenville area in her high school years. She graduated from Greenville High School in 1946. She attended Buena Vista College receiving her teaching certificate. She came back to the Spencer area and taught country school. Dolores married H. Robert Zimmer on December 29, 1948 and became a farmer's wife. They lived in Marathon, then Greenville, later moving to Everly and then to Milford in 1959. To this union they were blessed with three daughters; Nancy (Jim Hartmann), Susan (Galyn Carpentier), and Kristi (Brian Peck). Dolores was a very active woman prior to being diagnosed with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's in 1992. She tended her garden and flower beds, always was one to have a great feast for the family, enjoyed going to horse shows, and being with family. She was active in many organizations that she believed in: Dickinson County Cowbelles, Dickinson County Farm Bureau Women, First Lutheran Church Women's Group, Okoboji Boosters Women's Group and Dickinson County Republican Women. Dolores passed away at Longhouse in Spencer, Iowa on October 6, 2014 at the age of eighty six. Left to treasure her memories are her husband Robert, her daughters Nancy & Jim, Susan & Galyn, and Kristi & Brian. Her grandchildren Kelly & Heidi Hartmann, Michelle & Thomas White, Serena & Brian Golwitzer, Penni & Brian Blank, Molly & Michael Griglak, Cody Peck and Kelsey Peck and thirteen great grandchildren. Other special people included her sister Genieve Bertness, brother-in-law Norman Halverson (Jeanne) and many other nieces, nephews, cousins and dear friends.