Doris Helen Roth died suddenly at the Ridgecrest Village Care Center in Davenport, Iowa. Funeral services will be held on Tuesday, May 7, 2024 at Weerts Funeral Home. Visitation starts at 12:00 pm till the start of the service at 1:00 pm. Memorials may be left to St. Jude’s Children Hospital and online condolences may be expressed at www.weertsfh.com.
Doris was born on October 5, 1923 to Deanne and Helen Geren in Burlington, Iowa. She grew up in Burlington, Iowa, graduated from Burlington High School, and married her husband Max Clayton Roth. Doris and Max met in confirmation class at the Bethany Lutheran Church. Doris never dated another boy. Doris and Max were married December 15, 1943 in Burlington, Iowa, attended by Max’s brother Duane and Doris’s sister Katherine. They had 50 years of marriage which would have been extended many more years had he not predeceased her in 1995.
Max enlisted in the Air Force. Doris followed him to different military training bases until he was deployed overseas. She then joined the support force of women who kept the nation running by working as typist/secretary at the J.I. Case Company in Burlington, processing assembly blueprints for the building of the much needed military equipment. She was proud of her contribution to the war effort.
Max and Doris reunited after the war and moved to Davenport, Iowa with their first child, Dennis Deanne, who was born May 6, 1946. Their second child, Teresa Ann, was born May 10, 1951. Doris always laughed that she was in the hospital on Mother’s Day for both of these births. Doris’s Children were always her most cherished gift. She was a devoted wife, mother, and homemaker, enjoying her skills of sewing, cooking, and gardening.
Beginning in the 1980’s, Doris and Max made yearly trips to Maine to visit Teresa, sometimes also with Dennis. Together they traveled to visit Dennis in the Navy, to national parks out West with Doris’s sister Kay and husband Len, and to Florida and Branson to visit her sister Jean and husband Vern. After Max passed away in 1995, Doris had many travel adventures with Dennis and Teresa, including Atlantic Canada, the Grand Canyon, Alaska, and too many more to mention.
Doris was saddened that she never had grandchildren. Doris adored young children and filled the absence by volunteering as a teacher helper for 15 years at the St. Marks pre-school. The children loved Doris, some even called her “Grandma”. Many of them may still remember her today. Doris also loved playing in the Silver Bells, a bell choir at St. Mark’s Church.
Doris cherished the care and emotional comfort of her Cedar Street home for 72 years. She so grieved when it was necessary for her to move to a 24-hour skilled care facility where she lived for one more year. In her passing, she has moved on to a new home.
Doris was predeceased by her husband Max, her parents Deanne and Helen Geren, her dear sisters Jean Biorn and Kay Maupin, her beloved dog Pepper, as well as many dear friends and extended family members. She is survived by her two children and unlike many people her age, she leaves behind numerous close friends, themselves in their 60’s and 70’s in Maine.
