A celebration of life service was held Monday, Nov. 20, at the Rippey United Methodist Church for Dorothy Marie Kupfer, 96, of Perry, a Rippey area native and longtime resident.
Pastor Deb Parkison of the church officiated. Marjorie Vannatta was organist for the Rippey Church choir, and there was also congregational singing. Honorary casket bearers were Charles H. Dick, Vince Nelson, Darwin Johnston and Laurence Huber.
Casket bearers were LaVere and Chuck Derry, Steve Davis, Ned Johnston, David Crumley and Patrick McManus. Interment was in Rippey Cemetery.
Memorials are suggested to the Rippey United Methodist Church or to the Rowley Memorial Masonic Home Activity Fund and may be left at Hastings Funeral Home in Perry.
Dorothy was born on December 8, 1909 to Arch and Bertha Underwood Morse in Rippey, Iowa and died November 16, 2006 in Perry, Iowa. She graduated in 1927 from Rippey High School and then received a teaching certificate from Iowa State Teachers (now the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls) in 1929. She taught elementary school in Odebolt, Jefferson and Rippey.
Dorothy married Alvin Kupfer on Sept. 12, 1934. The lived on a farm 3 1/2 miles northwest of Rippey, and enjoyed 50 years of marriage together there until Al’s death in 1984.
Dorothy was active in Eastern Star and in the United Methodist Church as a Sunday School teacher as well as numerous other activities. She moved into an apartment on the Rowley Memorial Masonic Home campus in 1985, and became a resident of their care facility in 2001.
She was preceded in death by her parents, husband, and sister Bernice Jacobs of Santa Monica, CA.
Survivors include her daughter Janice Davis of Des Monies; grandson Frank Davis of Cedar Rapids; granddaughter Margaret Anne “Peggy” Davis of Des Moines; great-grandsons Christian Davis and Spencer Davis of Cedar Rapids, and a nephew.