Identical twins, 98, die within month of each other

CEDAR RAPIDS - Last June, we told you about Thekla Dohrmann and her twin sister, Irene Bertram.

Earlier this week we learned that Thekla died Feb. 20, just five weeks after her twin, Irene, died Jan. 13.

“I kind of suspected Thekla would be gone within a month afterwards,” says Sherri Dohrmann, Thekla's daughter-in-law. “She was keeping herself busy but questioned why Irene passed so quickly.”

Thekla's funeral was Feb. 23 at St. John Lutheran Church in Newhall, where her late husband, had served as pastor.

Like always, the two were dressed alike the day they met with a reporter in June.

As they looked through scrapbooks Sherri Dohrmann had made of their lives, the pictures, from childhood to adulthood, sparked vivid memories for the twins.

They'd dressed alike since they were born June 19, 1912, in southern Indiana. They continued to stump people growing up in Fort Dodge and after they graduated from Hampton High School in 1931.

The easiest way to tell them apart was by how they used their hands. Irene was right-handed and Thekla was left-handed, making them mirror-image twins.

The twins didn't dress alike when they were married and raising families, although their similarities continued through adulthood.

Both married Lutheran ministers, like their father, Ernst G. Juengel. Irene's first husband died in 1960; eight years later she married another Lutheran minister. When Irene had children with her first husband, Thekla adopted children around the same time.

Being pastors' wives led the twins to different parts of Iowa. Irene lived most of her married life in Garner and then in Alta with her second husband. Thekla moved around more often, living in Victor, Adair, Ida Grove, Newhall and Buckeye. They moved to Cedar Rapids last March to live with Thekla's son Tim Dohrmann and his wife, Sherri, where they received in-home care from Hospice of Mercy.