Cover photo for DOROTHY ELOISE TRIMBLE's Obituary
DOROTHY ELOISE TRIMBLE Profile Photo
1916 DOROTHY 2005

DOROTHY ELOISE TRIMBLE

March 21, 1916 — December 6, 2005

Dorothy W. Trimble, former Moline, IL community leader and business woman, died Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2005, in Pathway Hospice at Trinity at Terrace Park Medical Center, Bettendorf, Iowa.
With her family around her, her death was a peaceful end to a beautiful life.
Dorothy was a resident of Moline for 56 years until moving to Angelus-North Hill Retirement Village in East Moline in 2000. The former Dorothy Eloise Wilhelmy was born March 21, 1916, in Decatur, Illinois, the daughter of Dr. Orville and Cluthia Opal Miller Wilhelmy. She graduated from Decatur High School in 1933 and with honors from Millikin University in Decatur in 1937 where she was affiliated with Delta Delta Delta Social Sorority. She taught at Decatur High School from 1937 until her marriage to Riley Weston Trimble on August 9, 1942, in Decatur. He died on June 27, 1983. The couple moved to Moline in 1944, and bought the former Knox Funeral Home on July 1, 1945.
Dorothy became a licensed funeral director in 1958 and worked with her family until retiring in 2000. She continued to be Corporate Secretary of Trimble Inc. and the Trimble Group, which includes funeral homes in Moline and Coal Valley, IL, Trimble Funeral Planning Insurance Agency, Staack Florist, and WaterMark Corners and WaterMark Stationers in Moline.
She was a sixty-year member of Riverside (formerly First) United Methodist Church, Moline, and served on the Administrative Board and the Altar and Worship Committees; was president of the former Womens Society of Christian Service; and Chairman of various church circles through the years. With her long-time friend, Irene Saddler, she served as Church Greeter for over thirty years. Mrs. Trimble was an active community leader for many years until age and health forced her to slow down. She was president of Moline School Foundation; Rock Island-Moline Branch of American Association of University Women; Chapter BL of P.E.O. Sisterhood; the former Fortnightly Club; Semper Fidelis Circle of Kings Daughters; Calvin Coolidge Junior High School PTA; and the DeMolay Mothers Club. She was Vice President of the Womans Club of Moline; Chairman of the Clubs Art and Literature Department and Vice President of the Clubs Garden Department V. She was Secretary of the former Rock Island County Tuberculosis Association and the Rock Island County Historical Society. In addition, she was a member of the Board of Directors of the Moline Y.W.C.A., Moline Salvation Army, the former Moline Community Chest, and the Grant Elementary, Coolidge Junior High and Moline High School PTAs. She also served as a member of the Citizens Advisory Committee to the Moline Board of Education during the planning of the construction of the present Moline High School.
She had been a member of Rock Island-Moline Chapter of Zonta International; Moline Chapter #128 of the Order of Eastern Star; Black Hawk Genealogy Society; Quad City Area Alumnae Club of Delta Delta Delta Sorority; Literary Guild of Moline; Moline Lady Elks; The Outing Club of Davenport; Lend-A-Hand Circle of Kings Daughters; and Book Club II of AAUW. In addition to her community leadership, Dorothy will be remembered by many for three things: the numerous letters and notes of encouragement she wrote over the years to young people and adults whose accomplishments were reported in the newspaper; her extensive collection of elephants started while she was in school and now numbering over 1300, a portion of which are displayed in her familys funeral homes; and the brownies, made from her secret recipe, which she often gave to friends and to families she was serving. In memory of this, brownies will be served at the visitation.
Mrs. Trimble is survived by two sons and daughters-in-law, Kent W. and Christine A. Trimble of Jefferson City, Missouri; and Eric R. and Barbara J. Trimble of Moline; and five grandchildren, Verity Erin Mick and her husband, Ryan Mick, Minneapolis, MN; Amy Trimble Lorimer and her husband, David B. Lorimer II; and Reid W. Trimble, all of Moline; Genta C. Trimble, of Columbia, and her fiance Jonathan D. Reep, of Studio City CA; and Kyle W. Trimble, of Jefferson City. She was preceded in death by her sister, Barbara Jeanne Korty of Glasford, Illinois, on November 12, 2005.
Funeral services will be 11 a.m. Saturday , Dec. 12, 2005, at Trimble Funeral Home, Moline, with the Reverend Kent W. Trimble and the Reverend Janice Griffith officiating.
Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery, Moline. Visitation will be 3-8 p.m. Friday, Dec. 11th, at the funeral home where friends are invited to join the family in sharing memories and stories of Dorothy at 7:30 p.m. Memorials are suggested to Riverside United Methodist Church, 712 Sixteenth Street, Moline, IL 61265; the Salvation Army, 2200 Fifth Avenue, Moline, IL 61265; or a charity of the donors choice.
Those wishing to send condolences to the family may do so at www.dulletrimble.com or www.TrimbleFuneralHomes.com.
A COMMENTARY ON PSALM 126 BY KENT W. TRIMBLE FOR THE ODYSSEY ADULT SUNDAY SCHOOL CLASS FIRST UNITED METHODST CHURCH JEFFERSON CITY, MISSOURI DECEMBER 4, 2005 PSALM 126 (deleting verse 4)
When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dream. Then our mouth was filled with laughter, and our tongue with shouts of joy; then they said among the nations, "The Lord has done great things for them." The Lord had done great things for us; we are glad. May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy! He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him As this is being composed, it is noon on a Sunday and the Trimble family is keeping an old-fashioned, time-honored, middle-western death-watch at the bedside (recliner) of my 89-year old mother in Moline, Illinois.
Four weeks ago she had a pacemaker implanted. Three weeks ago her sister and only sibling died. Two weeks ago, during my last visit, she wanted me to take her yet again to an IMAX movie (her favorite). In the fortnight since, her congestive heart failure has progressed from a treatable nuisance to an overwhelming problem which resulted in a call from my brother Friday night saying he thought I'd better come up. We have been by her side in the intervening hours which have seen alternating moments of tears, jokes, memories, and love. Barring miracle or stubbornness (she's good at both), the end draws near. She knows it and she wants it. "The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad."
This verse, from the middle of Psalm 126, is our background music as she lays dying. A funeral director's wife for forty-one years who continued his work for twenty-two more as his widow, she would roll over on his side of the bed when he was called out in the middle of a winter's night to keep his spot warm for his return several hours later. A mere glimpse of the kind of woman she was, for in so doing it meant her side of the bed would be cold. No man ever had a more unselfish wife.
Twice a mother, for 60 and 59 years respectively, she did her best with two quite differently-minded and independently-thinking sons who followed in their father's footsteps but not nearly enough in their mother's.
A long-time pillar of Moline's First United Methodist Church, she was president of everything and disparager of nothing. As comfortable washing dishes after UMW meetings as she was in presiding over them, she saw community involvements as opportunities to stroke others' egos rather than her own. Prior to waking us for school at 7 each morning, she would rise at 6, fix herself a cup of coffee, and sit in a cold kitchen while still in nightgown and robe as she devotedly read her Upper Room and prepared devotionals for yet another study group. A tee-totaller to the end, she evolved a unique frown reserved for grandchildren indiscreet enough to mention six-packs and nightclubs in her presence.
A life-long Republican and ardent practitioner of its principles of self-reliance, monetary thrift, personal savings, and a hand-up instead of a hand-out, she counted among her closest friends Democrats, Jews, Catholics, Christian Scientists, and Unionists. For many years she tutored African American children after-school and on Saturday mornings at that same kitchen table.
"The Lord has done great things for us; we are glad." In between coughs just now she labored to tell us which pin or knick-knack or other article of sentiment was to go to which grandchild, which daughter-in-law, which friend, and which special person in her life. Suddenly remembering she had left out her two sons, we cut her short by saying she had given us 60 and 59 years, respectively, of herself and nothing she yet owned was of more value. To me that is the meaning of . . . "the Lord has done great things for us." And, to be sure, "we are glad" beyond all gladness. It is trite, it is over-used . . . it remains forever the truth . . . God blesses us not with things and comforts and entertainments that define "great things done for us"; not with progress and technology and medical arts that define "great things done for us;" and certainly not with miraculous repeals of the laws of aging and nature we would love to define as "great things done for us." But rather . . . with simple lives simply lived well; humble lives simply lived humbly well; spiritual lives simply lived spiritually well; and most of all, honest lives simply lived honestly well.
In the days ahead (surely days and not weeks), we are headed into that dark valley where many of you have already been. We are determined, as you were in your families, to "go forth weeping" but also "bearing the seed for sowing." Because of a mother's lifelong sowing of the RIGHT seed, "we shall come with shouts of joy, bringing our sheaves with us."
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