Brugman, Dorothy

Dorothy Brugman, 87, passed away Sunday, Dec. 22, 2013, at the Lantern Park Care Center in Coralville. Funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 27, at St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Coralville with the Rev. Walter Helms officiating. Visitation will be held from 4 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Henderson-Barker Funeral Home in West Liberty, where a rosary will be recited at 7 p.m. Burial will be in the St. Mary's Cemetery, Nichols, Iowa.

Memorials may be made to Mercy Hospital Foundation or a charity of your choice.

Online condolences may be made to the family at .

Dorothy Marie Kessler Brugman was born June 8, 1926, in a country home near Cosgrove, Iowa, the daughter of Leo Thomas and Mary Cecillia Walsh Kessler. She was a graduate of Lone Tree High School in 1945 and from Mercy School of Nursing in 1948.

On Aug. 29, 1949, she was married to Eugene Henry Brugman at Saint Mary's Church in Iowa City. The couple farmed near Nichols and raised their three children there. They moved to Iowa City in 1992. In their final retirement years, Gene and Dorothy resided at Windmill Pointe, Coralville. She was a member of St. Thomas More Catholic Church in Coralville.

Dorothy enjoyed doing genealogy. She made and kept picture albums of the family and of local community clippings over the years. Her family enjoyed her cooking, particularly her pies.

Survivors include her son, Robert Brugman of North Liberty; and two daughters, Bonnie (Steve) Steinhoff of Alameda, Calif. and Barbara (Alan) Swenson of Manassas, Va.

also surviving are four grandchildren, Stacen (Lisa) Steinhoff, Sara Steinhoff, Brian Swenson and Eric Swenson.

She was preceded in death by her husband; brother, Laurence Kessler and his wife, Leona; and her identical twin, Virginia Lamansky and her husband, Dean.

Published in The Gazette Dec. 24, 2013.