In all her years with Atonement Lutheran Church in Bloomington, there was little that Dorothy DeMore did not touch.
One of the co-founders of the church in the early 1950s, DeMore became president of the church council, served on numerous committees, played the organ, led the choir and taught Bible study, among other activities. She was also passionate about the church's social ministry, often spearheading food and clothing drives.
"She was the matriarch of the church," said the Rev. Scott Maxwell, who worked closely with DeMore for most of the 30 years he was church pastor. "She used her authority in a positive way."
DeMore died Oct. 10. She was 96.
Born to Swedish immigrant parents in Duluth, she graduated at age 20 from Duluth State Teachers College and began teaching high school English in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
In 1941, shortly after the outbreak of World War II, she traveled home for Christmas break and married the man she had been dating, Frank DeMore. But she had to keep the news from her employer, which forbade its female teachers from being married.
After starting a family, the couple moved to Minneapolis and eventually to Bloomington, which at that time was still a developing suburb.
Along with some neighbors, the DeMores started Atonement Lutheran, which initially met in a movie theater and then in a house, before a permanent building was finished in the late 1950s at 98th Street and Portland Avenue.
"The house then became one of my mother's social ministry activities," said daughter Sandra Batalden. "They made it available to people on a rent-free basis and provided support to them."
In her working life, DeMore also found a way to help others. She was one of a group of employees at Northwestern National Life Insurance Co. who helped start an employee contribution program that donated money to community causes.
"My philosophy has always been that those who have should share," she was quoted in a company article written on the occasion of her retirement in 1982.
She was asked in the article if she had misgivings about being a working mother.
"I'm not a guilty mother," DeMore said. "My family survived my working career. All my children finished high school and college and continued their education beyond college."
When she retired from the insurance company after 30 years, she was supervisor of policyholder services.
"She was a very generous person," said Batalden. "She had a good sense of humor and she was very kind, but very serious and very committed."
DeMore was noted for her musical talents — she possessed perfect pitch and was self-taught on the piano — and always seemed to have the energy to match her drive.
"She seemed to require not very much sleep," Batalden said. "Which was an advantage."
In a sermon she delivered to the church in 1995, DeMore defined responsibility as something that encompassed not only self and family, but also community, nation and world.
"Her faith was strong and deep," said Maxwell. "Out of that sprang a great concern for others and for those that had less."
"She was a lifelong learner," he added. "She struck me as a person who was always growing."
In retirement, she enjoyed travel, reading, volunteer work and many games of Scrabble.
In addition to Batalden, she is survived by daughter Michele d'Amour and son Paul; four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. She was preceded in death by husband Frank.
Services will be held at 2 p.m. Nov. 5 at the chapel at the Lyngblomsten Care Center in St. Paul.
Glenn Howatt • 612-673-7192
