VINTON:  Dorothea Wittmer, age 95, died Wednesday, July 26, 2006 at Virginia Gay Annex in Vinton following a brief illness.
     Funeral Services will be held at 2 PM, Saturday, July 29, 2006 at Wesley United Methodist Church in Vinton with Rev. Mark C. Urlaub officiating.  Interment will be held at Evergreen Cemetery in Vinton.  Friends may call at Phillips Family Center, 605 2nd Ave. in Vinton from 4 to 8 PM on Friday.  A memorial fund has been established.
     Dorothea was born June 16, 1911 at Vinton to William and Pearl Lillian (Park) Newton.  She was a graduate of Washington High School in Cedar Rapids and received her nursing degree from Chicago Memorial Hospital in Chicago, IL.  Dorothea practiced her profession at South Shore Hospital in Chicago for twenty-five years until retiring in 1974 and for several years she had been a nurse at Virginia Gay Annex.
     On September 2, 1933 she married Herbert Wittmer at Chicago, IL where the couple lived for many years.  He preceded her in death in 1965.
     Dorothea was a member of Wesley United Methodist Church, the Vinton Legion Auxiliary, Gold Star Mothers, and Jackson Jolly timers and was a lifetime member of Northwestern Memorial Hospital Association.
     She is survived by her daughters, Carol (Walter) Rabe of Highland, IN, Beverly (Victor) Bartel of Centerville, OH, and Linda (Chuck) Starcevich of Crown Point, IN; her daughter -in-law, Barbara Wittmer of Vinton; fourteen grandchildren; and twenty three great-grandchildren; her sister-in-law, Dorothy Newton of Vinton; and a number of nieces and nephews.
     In addition to her parents and husband, she was preceded in death by her son, Warren Wittmer; her grandson, Edward Wittmer and two brothers, Wallace and Norman Newton.