Dorothy L (Spenler) Doehrmann, 20 Sep 1933 - 28 Aug 2020

DOEHRMANN, SPENLER, BELLAR, WESTHOFF, MYERS, WALLIN

Posted By: Sarah Witte (email)
Date: 9/3/2020 at 13:06:06

Dorothy L. Doehrmann, 86 of Iowa City died Friday, August 28, 2020 at her home. A grave side service was held on Monday, August 31st with immediate family.

Chris Doehrmann, her son, shared her faith story as a remembrance. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations can be made to Iowa City Hospice whose services were greatly appreciated during the last year of her life.

Dorothy Lucille (Spenler) Doehrmann was born September 20, 1933, in Cairo, Nebraska, the daughter of Christian and Anna (Bellar) Spenler. Dorothy worked as a young girl preparing meals and cleaning homes for neighbors and was on her own by the age of fourteen. Dorothy came to know Jesus at a tent revival meeting where she answered a call to submit her life to Him and was baptized in the river.

She met Earl roller-skating and they married on September 7, 1956 at St. Paul’s Chapel in Iowa City. Once Earl and Dorothy started having children, Dorothy worked nights at a local bakery making pies and pastries. Dorothy then combined her sewing talents and desire to be home with her children into a business creating draperies in her basement.

Dorothy spent 10 years working for the University of Iowa before retiring and then enjoyed visiting her children and grandchildren with Earl by her side. Dorothy was an active member of Our Redeemer Lutheran Church where she enjoyed singing in the choir with Earl.

She and Earl enjoyed playing Bridge with church friends, and 500 and Pepper with the Doehrmann family. They passed that card playing tradition on to their children and grandchildren. To know Dorothy was to know a kind, gentle, soft spoken, generous woman who loved her children and would do anything for them.

Dorothy’s family included: her husband of fifty years, Earl, their children Sherry Westhoff and her husband Paul of Kenosha, WI, Chris Doehrmann and his wife Julie of New Brighton, MN, and Nancy Doehrmann of Iowa City, IA. Her grandchildren included: Paul Andrew Westhoff, Olivia Westhoff, Luke Westhoff, Jessica (Doehrmann) Myers and her husband Phil, Cassie (Doehrmann) Wallin and her husband Bryan, Adam Doehrmann and his wife Jenn, and Alaina Doehrmann. She also leaves behind her lifelong friend and sister-in-law Anita Spenler and many of Earl’s siblings and their spouses.

Dorothy was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Earl, her brothers Norman, Roy, Vernon, and Lenard Spenler and her sisters Helen Spenler and Idella (Spenler) Stahl.

Published on Gay & Ciha Funeral Home web site, an abbreviated version published in The Gazette on September 2, 2020