Darlyne Kathryn Neff
NEFF, DETUNCQ
Posted By: Sarah Fletcher (email)
Date: 11/27/2015 at 16:43:53
Darlyne Kathryn Neff, 81, of Iowa City, died Sunday, November 22, 2015 at Oaknoll Retirement Community.
Per her wishes there will be no memorial service, the family request no flowers.
Memorial contributions can be made to the Energy Conservation Fund of the Oaknoll Foundation.
Burial will be in the Riverside Cemetery in Oshkosh, WI at a later date.
Darlyne was born December 1, 1933 in West Bend, WI the daughter of Edward and Meta DeTuncq. She had three younger brothers Robert (Pat), Donald and Edward “Chip” (Jackie). Darlyne was educated in the West Bend school system, MacMurray College, and Hope College, becoming a grade school teacher. She said the students she liked the best were the ones that gave her the most trouble. Darlyne then earned a MS degree in Speech at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, WI where she met her husband John Neff. They were married in West Bend on August 20, 1960. They then moved to Yerkes Observatory of the University of Chicago in Williams Bay, WI; where John was a postdoctoral fellow, and then to Iowa City, IA in 1964, where Darlyne taught kindergarten for many years at Helen Lemme Elementary School.
Darlyne and John had two sons Paul (Mary) and James (Stephanie). When her sons were old enough, she resumed teaching grade school, and later taught junior high speech, community college speech and at-risk preschool children. Darlyne’s commitment to service was also evident in her volunteer work with women prisoners, the homeless, and Habitat for Humanity. She enjoyed traveling, camping with her family, hiking on mountain trails and ocean beaches. Darlyne cared deeply about the environment and the wise use of energy.
Darlyne organized one of the early forums on health care reform at Oaknoll in 2008. That resulted in an invitation to speak at the Iowa White House Forum on Health Reform in Des Moines in March of 2009. Evidently someone in the White House liked the speech, because they put it on the White House web page and she was invited to sit with Mrs. Obama later that year during the President’s Affordable Care Act speech to a joint session of Congress. She was a strong advocate for access to health care, and for wise and judicious use of medical resources.
Darlyne is survived by her husband of 55 years; her two sons; four grandchildren, Justin (Dawn), Zoe, John and James; a great-granddaughter Henley; Brother Edward “Chip” (Jackie) DeTuncq; and sister-in-law Pat DeTuncq.
Darlyne is preceded in death by her parents, and brothers Robert and Donald.
Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service
Johnson Obituaries maintained by Cindy Booth Maher.
WebBBS 4.33 Genealogy Modification Package by WebJourneymen