Dorris Margaret Lanning
LANNING
Posted By: Sarah Fletcher (email)
Date: 3/6/2026 at 06:53:53
Dorris Margaret Lanning, 97, of Cedar Rapids, passed away at Cottage Grove Place in Cedar Rapids in January 2026. A private gathering and interment will be arranged at a later date.
Dorris was born in Hastings, Nebraska. She was a graduate of Nebraska Wesleyan University, attaining her B.A. degree in education.
At Nebraska Wesleyan University, Dorris was the center on the women’s basketball team and a homecoming queen. While at NWU, she met Dean Lanning, to whom she was very happily married for 68 years.
A busy mother for four children, Dorris was a minster’s wife and actively involved in the life of Dean’s churches. She also worked as a retirement counselor for AT&T-Bell Laboratories, where she was one of the original Unix instructors, until her retirement.
Upon retirement, Dorris and Dean moved from New Jersey to coastal Alabama, where they spent many happy years, later moving to Iowa.
Teaching was a passion and Dorris taught reading and special education in the public school system and gave piano lessons. She also taught her children and many of her grandchildren to dance.
Dorris was passionate about social justice and was involved in the Civil Rights movement during the 1960’s and throughout her life. At 88, she participated in the Women’s March in 2017.
Her Welsh heritage was very important to her and part of that heritage was music. Dorris came from a musical family; she played the piano and snare and timpani drums. She was also very happy to have taught children and grandchildren how to make perfect Welsh cakes.
Above all, Dorris’s joy was her family. She valued the time spent with her husband, four children, eleven grandchildren, five great-grandchildren and many nieces and nephews. She mastered text and email early on so that she could stay in daily touch with her family and friends. During the pandemic, when she was 90, she taught chair yoga to her family on Zoom from her living room every Sunday evening.
Dorris is survived by her cherished children and their spouses, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, sister-in-law, and nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her beloved husband, parents, brother, and sister.
Memorial gifts may be made to:
• Matthew 25: Ministries - https://m25m.org/?form=donateonline.
• Kidneeds Fund – https://godonate.akoyago.com/gcrcf/fund/KidneedsFund or GCRCF, 324 3rd St SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52401-1841.
Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service
Johnson Obituaries maintained by Cindy Booth Maher.
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