Lorma Louise Gallaher Andrews Marcue, 102 years young, of Davenport, Iowa passed away peacefully on September 18, 2024 in Davenport, Iowa. A celebration of life will be held on Saturday, September 21, 2024 at 10:30am at the Koening Chapel at Ridgecrest Village. In lieu of flowers memorials is Lorma's name may be made to Honor Flight of the Quad Cities. Inurnment will be at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
Lorma was born in Burlington, IA on September 13, 1922 to Benjamin and Anna Gallaher (née Nickelsen). Her family moved to Muscatine where she graduated high school class of 1940. Lorma graduated from Iowa State University in 1944 with a BS in Nutrition, majoring in Dietetics. She was active in many organizations including the honoraries Phi Upsilon Omicron and Mortar Board.
At Iowa State she met her first husband, Donavon Andrews from Titonka, IA. She followed him to the east coast to Baltimore, MD where she worked in dietetics and spent her weekends in Annapolis, MD at the Naval Academy dancing with Don to big bands of the era.
Lorma and Don were married on June 9, 1946 in Muscatine, IA. Lorma and the family moved frequently to different Naval stations during Don’s career in the Navy’s Civil Engineering Corps, starting from Virginia (where Ken was born); Guam; Florida (where Linda was born); San Francisco; Illinois; Washington, D.C., Paris, France; Southern California, and ending back in San Francisco. Along the way, Lorma had a hobby of entering and winning contests with skill set of clever jingles. One of her successes was winning the 1949 Mercury car and another was winning a 1958 Rambler car when she created the Busch Bavarian Beer slogan “A Busch in the hand is worth two in the fridge.” She also was a substitute (sometimes full time) high school home economics teacher.
Lorma and Don had a wonderful retirement living in Sacramento where they loved gardening (especially their tomatoes and fruit trees) and visits from their children and grandchildren. Their longest lasting group of friends, from Iowa State, was a group of nine Welch Hall girls, who all married nine Iowa State guys. The couples met at various destinations around the US throughout the years. Lorma’s husband, Don, passed away in 1994 but the Welch group (down from 18 to 16 at that time) kept meeting.
In 1997, Lorma and Bruce Marcue (a widower of the Welch Hall friends) were married in the Black Hills near Rapid City, South Dakota. They spent winters in Sarasota, Florida and summers at the Black Hills family cabin with their friends. After many moves, in 2002, Lorma and Bruce moved to Davenport, Iowa to a cottage at Ridgecrest Village almost next door to her brother, George Gallaher and sister-in-law, Ollie. They joined Grandview Baptist Church but worshiped in Ridgecrest’s Koning Chapel when old age crept up. Bruce passed in 2004, but Lorma kept up her many volunteer activities.
Lorma leaves her son, Ken Andrews (JoAnn), Chesapeake, VA; her daughter, Linda Andrews (Martin Kappeyne van de Coppello), Pacific Palisades, CA; grandchildren, Kelly Andrews, Tracy Darnell (Shane), Nick “Cypress” Kappeyne van de Coppello, Allison Kappeyne van de Coppello, and Christine Kappeyne van de Coppello; and 2 great-grandchildren, Kenton and Blake Darnell.
She was preceded in death by her parents, her husbands, great-grandson Hunter Darnell and her siblings, Teresa Johnson Philben, George Gallaher and Betty Bell.
We are particularly grateful to Patti Creen and Ridgecrest Village for the loving care they provided her.
