A memorial service was held Nov. 6 at Slininger-Schroeder Funeral Home in Jefferson for Lynnette Holz, 84, of Jefferson. Interment was at Junction Township Cemtery in Grand Junction.
Lora Lynnette (Downs) Holz of Jefferson passed from this life on Tuesday Nov. 1, 2016 at Taylor House Hospice in Des Moines, as a result of several recent falls.
She was born July 27, 1932 at home in Turin, IA, to Franklin Hanes and Ottolene (West) Downs. When Lynnette was 4, they moved to a farm near Bronson, IA, where she grew up. She attended Bronson Community School District and graduated in 1950. While in school she participated in girls glee, the newspaper, was basketball manager and class president.
At about age 12 she became active in 4-H and later served as club president and county president. She took projects to the State Fair and stayed at the dormitory there where they enjoyed morning programs and evening entertainment. She started at Iowa State College in 1950 and continued to be active in Campus 4-H.
While at Iowa State she was advisor in chief for the girls’ dorm, and ran a home management house as part of her major in home economics. She also worked at the Union and Oak Room as a waitress and hostess. For one quarter she attended the Merrill Palmer School of Human Development in Detroit, MI. During the summer she did housework and childcare for a family in Sioux City. Both Lynnette, and future husband Robert, graduated from Iowa State in 1954. After college Lynnette was employed in Obrien County as a home economist.
Lynnette first met Robert Holz through 4-H, then reconnected at Iowa State College where they courted during their senior year. Robert proposed by mail while away in the Air Force at Elmendorf Air Force base in Alaska. She left employment in Obrien County to be married on Sept. 10, 1955. Immediately after the reception, they honeymooned on the trek to Alaska along the unpaved Alcan Highway. While in Alaska, Lynnette worked for Air Force intelligence and required secret clearance to perform the duties.
After nine months they returned to farm in Greene County in various family businesses. In 1967 they bought a farm near Rippey and built a house in 1970. Lynnette stained and varnished all of the woodwork throughout the house which remains beautiful to this day.
Lynnette worked as a homemaker, cooking, raising children, gardening, sewing, and home decorating. She was a natural, effective teacher and taught her daughters many valuable skills. In the same capacity she served as a 4-H leader for two different Greene County girls clubs in Grand Junction and Rippey in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s. She enjoyed flowers, raising chickens, serving as a 4-H judge at county fairs and her grandchildren. Lynnette was a wonderful cook, and provided meals faithfully and punctually at lunch and supper until shortly before her death. She remained committed to her family, but withdrew from community activities in the early ‘70s due to her 40-year battle with treatment-resistant or refractive depression.
She was preceded in death by her parents and survived by her husband Robert; sister LaVaras (Downs) Jewett (James), Grand Junction; three daughters: Kristi Holz Berg (John), Churdan; Robin Holz Moberley (Dean), Pleasant Hill; and Julie Renee Breshears (Joseph), Lamoni; grandchildren: Cali Janae Searles, (James Lewis), Des Moines; Luke Edwards (Emily), Creston; Catherine Whisenand, Des Moines; Deborah Miller (Nathan), Davis City, Shaynee Breshears (Lamoni), Neshamah Breshears (Cedar Rapids); six great grandchildren; and many nieces and nephews.
