De Vries, Kathleen (Mrs. George Jr.) 1926-2021

DEVRIES, VANOORT, WIELENGA

Posted By: Marjorie Brunsting-Volunteer (email)
Date: 6/13/2021 at 20:33:36

Mrs. Kathleen De Vries, age 94, of Orange City, passed away on Saturday, March 27, 2021, at the Prairie Ridge Care Center in Orange City.

There will be a funeral service on Friday, April 2, at 11:00am, at the Immanuel Christian Reformed Church in Orange City. The Rev. Robert Drenten will officiate. Interment will follow the service at the West Lawn Cemetery in Orange City. Visitation with the family will be on Friday, from 10:00am to 11:00am, at the church. On behalf of the family, we highly encourage the use of masks during the visitation and service. Arrangements are with the Oolman Funeral Home in Orange City.

On behalf of the family, we highly encourage the use of masks during the visitation and service.

Kathleen June was born on June 27, 1926, to Nick “Klaus” and Jacoba (Van Oort) Wielenga in Orange City and brought home to a farm between Orange City and Alton. She was the oldest of three children.

Kathleen attended various country schools throughout her childhood. She went to high school at her beloved Newkirk High School, where she made dear and lifelong friends, graduating in 1944. She attended Westmar College in Le Mars for a semester and studied secretarial skills at the National Business Training School in Sioux City, for one year.

After he returned from his service in WWII, Kathleen married George De Vries, Jr. on July 20, 1948. They raised five children and Kathleen was an active partner in supporting George’s years in education, teaching and writing, including his thirty plus years teaching at Northwestern College in Orange City. George passed away on December 19, 2017, her husband and partner of 69 years.

She was born and raised in the First Reformed Church in Orange City and was a founding and longtime member of the Immanuel Christian Reformed Church family.

Kathleen worked at several businesses in Orange City throughout her years. She became a partner/business owner with friend, Alyce Faye Vander Stoep, of the children’s store, The Swing Set, and so enjoyed being a business owner on main street in Orange City.

Kathleen was herself a beloved and faithful daughter, sister, wife, mother, homemaker, business partner, and friend. She was full of grace and class, beautiful, inside and out, and full of artistic instincts. She had an innate gift of hospitality, a very deep love of “family”, which included many dear aunts, uncles, and cousins, and family genealogy, and an abiding sense of humility and fun.

Kathleen is survived by her two brothers, Wilton Jan Wielenga, and Jack Wielenga, and his wife Elaine; a sister-in-law, Joyce De Vries; her four children and their spouses, eight grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren, George and Pat De Vries, and their children, Jessica and Brad Hoberg, and Jennie and Casey Weerheim, and great-grandchildren, Piper and Harrison; Nick and Cindy De Vries, and their children, Nicholas and Sarah De Vries, and Jacob De Vries; Maria De Vries and Craig Carpenter, and their son, Joel Carpenter; and Nathan and Amy De Vries, and their children, Luke, Hannah, and Lilly Kate De Vries.

In addition to her parents and husband, Kathleen was preceded in death by a beloved son, Joel De Vries, in July of 1983; and more recently, a grandson, Samuel George De Vries, on November 30, 2020.

Any memorials may be sent to the George and Kathleen De Vries History Scholarship established at Northwestern College, to continue the work of educating the next generations about the past and how it informs our present.

The family expresses a special thanks to the wonderful and professional personnel and employees at Landsmeer and Prairie Ridge for their expert and loving care of our beloved parents over the years.

Source: Oolman Funeral Home online obituary.