Frances Loretta (Hood) JULANDER STEPHENS

STEPHENS, JULANDER, HOOD

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 7/2/2017 at 21:17:38

December 10, 1916 ----- June 2017

Frances Loretta Stephens was born (F. L. Hood) December 10, 1916 in Belmond, Iowa. The oldest of 8, 3 girls and 5 boys. The family moved to a farm outside of Goodell, Iowa. Loretta remembers dad bringing her to town Sunday evening and picking her up Friday afternoon so she could stay with family friends during the week and make it to school. The family moved to Des Moines where she attended Woodrow Wilson Jr. High and East High. The family moved back to Belmond, but Loretta stayed in Des Moines working as a live-in housekeeper. She loved getting together with her family and going to dances, playing cards, having family dinners, etc. The only one left is her brother Donald who is the youngest of the 8. Don resides in Loves Park, IL.

Her favorite entertainment was probably big band music, preferably at the ballroom and later, square dancing. She was an Arthur Murray dance instructor in the 1930s. As a young girl she had won the Charleston contests at Belmond. While the instructors were giving lessons before a dance at the Riviera Ballroom, a young man paid his dime and got in line to dance with her. While dancing she realized “this fellow knows how to dance”. That’s how she met her husband to be. Richard C. (Dick) Julander. At that time Dick was attending Palmer Chiropractic school in Davenport and went on to be a Chiropractor. They were married on Thanksgiving Day 1938 at the Cathedral in Des Moines.

For the next 31 years Loretta was a homemaker. Dick and Loretta lived in Des Moines, Milwaukee, Elgin (IL), and Des Moines again, Marion, Ames, Marshalltown and back to Des Moines. Dick and Loretta had two boys, Richard and Robert who were nothing but trouble. Richard went on to be the Business Manager for the Minneapolis School system, Robert went into the printing business and is currently working in Des Moines. In 1969, Dick died of cancer. Loretta went to nurse’s aid school at Mercy Hospital and worked for several years in the emergency room at Mercy. She really enjoyed the job and the people that she met there.

While attending a square dance she met Keith Stephens. They married on Thanksgiving Day at the Little Brown Church in the Vale. Keith and Loretta took up residence in Ankeny where he was an instructor at DMACC. They had lots of fun attending square dances and some travel, but unfortunately, Keith contracted Hodgkins disease and passed on a few years later. Her trouble maker son Richard suggested that maybe it was all of that dancing that did the two husbands in.

Loretta is survived by her sons, Robert (Cheryl) Julander of Ankeny, and Richard (Chris) Julander of Bonita Springs, FL; brother, Donald Hood of Loves Park, IL; 4 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren. She was preceded in death by her first husband Richard C. Julander and second husband Keith Stephens. Graveside services will be at 11:00 a.m. on Tuesday, June 13, 2017, at Glendale Cemetery in Des Moines.

http://www.hamiltonsfuneralhome.com/services/services_detail_newspaper.aspx?rid=24475