Lorena Mae Dreeszen, 88, a lifelong resident of Auburn, Iowa, died Monday, February 3, 2025 at Stewart Memorial Community Hospital in Lake City, Iowa, following a brief illness. A Funeral Service will take place at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025, at the United Presbyterian Church in Auburn, IA. A Visitation will occur from 4:00-6:00 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025, at the Lampe & Powers Funeral Home in Lake City, Iowa.
Services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, February 12 at the United Presbyterian Church in Auburn, Iowa, with Deacon Butch Stone officiating. Following the service, burial will be at Oak Lawn Cemetery north of Auburn. Visitation will be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday, February 11 at the Lampe & Powers Funeral Home in Lake City. A prayer service will be held at 5:30 p.m.
Lorena was born November 16, 1936 to Albert and Erma (Bowles) Wright in Rush Springs, Oklahoma. The second youngest of five children, she grew up in the nearby town of Duncan. A child of the Great Depression, she recalled traveling with her parents and siblings to Texas to help her relatives pick cotton.
While attending Duncan High School, Lorena participated in the Sing It Again Club, the Pep Club and the Record Club. During her senior year of high school, Lorena went on a blind date with Jim Dreeszen, an Army sergeant from western Iowa who was stationed at Fort Sill in nearby Lawton. Both somewhat shy at the time, Lorena and Jim opted to go see a movie because they were worried they might otherwise run out of things to say to each other during the date.
Jim eventually proposed marriage and Lorena accepted. With Jim’s enlistment in the Army ending, Lorena wanted to drop out of school and return to Iowa with him. But Jim encouraged her to finish her senior year. She did, becoming the first member of her family to graduate from high school.
The couple were wed in Duncan on June 12, 1955, beginning over 68 years of marriage. They started farming northwest of Auburn, later buying their own farm, where they raised two children and lived for over 50 years before moving to a new home in the town of Auburn in 2005.
Lorena joined the Auburn United Presbyterian Church, where she took part in numerous activities over the years, which included serving as an elder on the church session, teaching Sunday School, hosting Mary Martha Circle meetings and organizing countless funeral lunches.
For many years, Lorena and Jim sang in the church choir and also formed a duet for numerous funeral services.
Lorena also volunteered with several local civic and charitable endeavors. As a longtime member of the Stewart Memorial Community Hospital Auxiliary, she regularly worked at the hospital’s gift shop. An accomplished seamstress, she also sewed over 300 pillows for the auxiliary.
During Auburn’s Centennial in 1987, she led the celebration’s fashion review. She also helped preserve the community’s history through her work at the town’s museum.
In retirement, Lorena and Jim took up country dancing, a hobby they enjoyed with a group of friends, and also taught dance classes.
For several years, the couple hauled their Fifth Wheel camper to south Texas for an escape from Iowa’s harsh winters. Until just a few years ago, they also had a reserved camping spot at the Iowa State Fair, where Lorena once competed in the cow chip throwing competition at Pioneer Hall.
In addition to dancing and singing, Lorena’s hobbies included reading, painting, gardening and cooking. She regularly treated her family and guests to a wide variety of sweets, from pies to gingerbread cookies shaped like leaves and frosted with fall colors.
Lorena also liked to watch Jim enjoy his many horses. Jim died in August 2023 at age 90. Steadfast in her belief in Christ as our risen savior, Lorena is now reunited with her husband, who she described as the “love of my life.”
Lorena is survived by her children, Dave Dreeszen and his fiancée, Amy Duhachek of Sioux City; Cindy Adams and her husband, Gary Adams, of Omaha; and four grandchildren: Robin Dreeszen of Sioux City; Rachel Dreeszen and her fiancé, Matt Bruce, of Kensett, Iowa; and Matthew and Megan Dreeszen of Omaha.
Lorena was preceded in death by her husband, her parents, a brother, Melvin Wright, three sisters, Lucille Patterson, Ona Faye Younts and Ruby Tyson, and a sister-in-law, Jean Peck.
