A Celebration of Life of Dorothy Van Horn will be held Sunday, Sept. 12, at the Jefferson Community Golf Course. Private family interment will be in the Jefferson Cemetery.
Dorothy Burdine Snook Van Horn was born December 24, 1923, at Newton, the third daughter of Bert and Henrietta Jess Snook. She died August 23, 2021, at the age of 97 years.
She grew up in Newton, graduating from Newton High School with the class of 1941. She spent many hours of her junior high and high school years working with her four siblings and parents at the family restaurant, Snook Inn.
Following high school, she worked one year as a receptionist for the Parsons Company in Newton. She then enrolled at the University of Iowa and spent the next four years going to school in Iowa City. While there, she was a member of the University’s all-girl Scottish Highlanders bagpipe and drum band where she was a drummer and dancer. She also became an avid Hawkeye fan and she and her husband held Hawkeye season football tickets for nearly 60 years.
During her summer vacations, Dorothy returned home to work with her parents in the restaurant and also worked at the Maytag Company, which by that time had switched from making laundry equipment to producing small engine parts for B-26 bombers.
Dorothy graduated from the University of Iowa with the class of 1946 and moved to Jefferson where she joined the staff of the Jefferson Bee and Herald.
On February 23, 1947, Dorothy married Delmar Van Horn Jr. and they became the parents of three sons: Gary, Kent and Todd. The family made their home on the Van Horn home farm just east of Jefferson where they lived for 13 years. They then moved into Jefferson where Dorothy resided for the rest of her active life.
Dorothy was active in a number of organizations and community activities. She served for nine and a half years on the Jefferson city council. During this time, she was elected to the board of the League of Iowa Municipalities, now the League of Iowa Cities, and served one term as president of this state organization. Also during this time she was elected to the board of the National League of Cities in Washington D.C. and served several years on that board.
She was on the organizing committee of the Bell Tower Festival and did publicity for this event for several years. She helped organize and was past president of the Community Betterment group and was co-chair of the first phase of the city’s tree planting committee when more than 450 trees were planted by dozens of volunteers and city employees to start the replacement of the hundreds of trees lost to Dutch Elm disease. She also served as a state judge of Community Betterment projects throughout Iowa.
She helped organize and was past president of the Greene County Arts Council, the Greene County Players and the former Greene County Day Care Center. She was a charter member and past president of the Ambassadors and a long-time member and past president of Beta Tau Delta sorority.
She loved to play golf and she served on the board of the Greene County Golf and Country Club in its early years. She was a member of the club’s ladies golf team and was ladies club champion for several years. She also loved to snow ski and spent one week every winter for many years skiing in Colorado with friends or in the Lake Tahoe area with family members. She was an avid reader throughout her life.
Dorothy was honored to receive the local Soroptimist club’s “Women Helping Women” award in 1975 and she also received the Governor’s Volunteer award.
Summers were kept busy supervising and refereeing her three boys and neighbors’ kids in the family pool, on the yard trampoline and other stunts and activities the kids could think up as entertainment.
Dorothy and Del traveled extensively throughout Iowa and all 50 states, both in connection with Del’s job as director of the Iowa Development Commission and as an Iowa DOT commissioner, and also with Dorothy’s volunteer work. When the boys were grown and gone, she went to work for Jane Sorenson at Fun Travel, a job she enjoyed a lot for approximately 12 years. Her traveling then included visiting many countries around the world and continued for many years after her retirement.
Dorothy was a member of Central Christian Church and was an active member of the Greene County Medical Center auxiliary.
Dorothy was preceded in death by her husband in 2001; her parents; sisters Helen VanMaaren and Wanda Geerhart; and brother Burton Snook.
Surviving are her sons Gary of Phoenix, AZ, Kent of Winfield, MO, and Todd and his wife Anita of Jefferson; special family friend and “adopted” daughter Lori Whiton Damron of Panora; grandchildren Angela Van Horn and Elissa Van Horn of Arizona, Brook Van Horn of Nashville, TN, Michael Van Horn and his wife Ashley of Defiance, MO, Shawn Van Horn and his wife Mary of Foley, MO, Megan Anderson and her husband Tyler of Urbandale, Tara Sheeder and Joshua Williston; great-grandchildren; her brother Robert Snook of California; other relatives and friends.
