Dorothy M. Detenbeck

December 14, 1925-December 18, 2019

The daughter of Elmer and Gertrude Strawder, Dorothy Maxine was born December 14, 1925 in Wallace, Nebraska. She was the second child of seven. She is survived by her oldest sibling, her sister Ann, and was preceded in death by her younger siblings, Ruth, Jo, Wayne, Bernard, and Fred. Dorothy was also preceded in death by her husband of 64 years, Keith, and her parents, Elmer and Gertrude.

Dorothy finished high school in Wallace and over the years, often worked as a bookkeeper. One of her first jobs was at the airstrip at Holdrege where she took flying lessons and earned her pilot’s license at the age of 18. She logged many hours flying a piper cub and one day surprised her father when she landed in a field near their home near Wallace. Little did he know, when he had earlier signed what he thought was insurance papers for his daughter, he was signing permission for her to take flying lessons.

Dorothy met Keith in Holdrege, Nebraska in 1946 after he returned from WWII. They were married on March 29, 1947 in Phillipsburg, Kansas, accompanied by her sister Jo and future husband Vernon. They celebrated the birth of their first child, Sharon, on April 6, 1948 and their second child, Deborah, on June 29, 1951.

Dorothy was an accomplished seamstress and Sharon and Deb grew up wearing many well-crafted clothes made by their mother, a tradition she continued with her grandchildren. She passed her skills on to her daughters, starting during long winters in North Dakota when they were 6 and 9 years old, teaching them to embroidery and later sew. She was an excellent baker, known for her delicious cinnamon rolls, pies, cookies, and other pastries. She was also known to spend many late summer days canning tomatoes, beans, peaches, and pickles from the garden.

She was Keith’s right hand woman on many jobs, including building 2 houses that they called home, a cabin at Johnson’s lake and remodeling a house near North Platte for family members. They were also an upholstering team for a few years after Keith retired. Dorothy and Keith loved to dance, go camping, fish, travel, and spend time with friends and family. They spent many years attending dance and music recitals, baseball, softball, and soccer games, and graduations, watching their grandchildren (Stacy, Courtney, and Alex) grow up. They had 3 great grandchildren, Kassidy, Reagan, and Johnathon and Dorothy was so proud of all of them. She also loved her grand-dog, Harrison, who she called “the baby.”

Some of the memories of Dorothy include her fear of storms and bulls. Sharon and Deb remember one day in North Dakota when a tornado warning was sounded and since they didn’t have a basement, their mother sandwiched them between the mattresses on the bed. Luckily the tornado did not touch down and the girls survived the mattress ordeal. Another North Dakota memory was when Dorothy and Deb were picking chokecherries and there was a bull, on the other side of the fence, that started pawing the ground. Dorothy grabbed hold of Deb’s hand and started running home. Deb was sure her feet never touched the ground. A memory from grandson Alex and the great grand kids, Kassidy, Reagan, and Johnathan was getting to navigate Grandma’s electric cart; early driving lessons! Kassidy also remembers riding on the back of Grandma’s electric cart to the park near the Hartley Street House, while Grandpa walked. She also remembers playing catch at the park with a foam ball, which often hit Grandma in the face when she missed catching it, making her and Kassidy get the giggles.

Dorothy was an independent and resourceful woman. She was outgoing and possessed a spirit for hard work and generosity and had a good outlook on life even when she faced many physical challenges, especially in the past several years. She was an avid reader her whole life, making good use of the public library and later, well into her 80s, she especially appreciated the large print collection. Additional pastimes included watching Nebraska volleyball and football, and the Kansas City Royals. Over the past several years, she spent many hours playing Rummikub with anyone who visited and more recently she enjoyed playing large print Bingo with Deb and Sharon when they gathered at Gateway Vista for lunch every Friday. She also loved to look through photo albums or look at digital photos of grand and great-grand kids.

Dorothy was able to stay in the house she and Keith called home in Lincoln for 8 years after his death thanks to Aging Partners. The family especially want to thank Denise Winston, Phyllis Thompson, Pat Arellano, Melissa Hoy and Katherine Milligan, the main Aging Partners members, who helped make this possible. The family also want to thank the hard-working team at Gateway Vista for caring for her over the past year-and-a-half in long term care and HoriSun Hospice during the last days. They also greatly appreciate the women from St. Luke United Methodist who she called the “church ladies,” for visiting her often and sending her cards for each holiday.

Among those left to cherish her memory include her daughters, Sharon Brown and Deb Levitov; sons-in-law, John Brown and Peter Levitov; grandchildren Stacy (Brown) Zaruba and husband Mike, and daughter, Kassidy; Courtney (Brown) Kreifels and husband Matt and children Reagan and Johnathan; and Alex Levitov and wife Jillian Weinberger; her sister Ann Westergren, and nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.