Hansen, Deborah Lee (Spiker) 1952-2003

HANSEN, SPIKER, BAIER

Posted By: volunteer (email)
Date: 10/16/2005 at 15:49:13

DES MOINES - Deborah Lee (Spiker) Hansen, 50, of Des Moines died of heart failure Tuesday, March 11, at Iowa Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines.

Memorial services will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Grace United Methodist Church with burial at Resthaven Cemetery in West Des Moines. McLaren's Funeral Home in West Des Moines is handling arrangements.

Friends may call from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at McLaren's Funeral Chapel, 801 - 19th Street West Des Moines. Memorial contributions may be made to Grace United Methodist Church or the American Heart Association.

The daughter of Dorothy L. (Baier) Spiker and the Rev. Leo L. Spiker, she was born July 9, 1952, in Council Bluffs. During her childhood she had lived at Grant, Cumberland, Letts and Newton. She graduated in 1970 from Newton Senior High School. She worked several years for Blue Cross-Blue Shield, and in Emergency Room Admissions at Methodist and Lutheran hospitals in Des Moines. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in elementary education from Simpson College in 1990. She became certified as a reading specialist at Drake University and taught at Longfellow Elementary School in Des Moines for the past 12 years.

She enjoyed teaching children to read and was a strong advocate for children's needs. She had served on the Children and Family Ministries Board of the United Methodist Church, on the study committee to merge Longfellow and Wallace schools, on the East High School Development Committee and on the State PTA board. Mrs. Hansen was a member of DMEA, ISEA and NEA. She worked diligently to begin a "Morning Club" that gave children a place before school to be inside, to be helped with homework, and to be ready to learn. On July 26, 1975, she married Richard Hansen in Des Moines.

She was a member of Grace United Methodist Church in Des Moines, where she played in the Bell Choir; was a member of United Methodist Women and served on the Evangelism Committee. She was a certified lay speaker for the Iowa Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Survivors include her husband; mother of Newton; a brother, David Spiker of Newton; a sister and brother-in-law, Kathryn and Joseph J. Molnar of Auburn, Ala.; two nieces; and one nephew.

She was preceded in death by her father and grandparents.

The Newton Daily News, Thursday, March 13, 2003