Laura L Dieter

Laura L. Dieter
The warm, kind and generous heart of Laura Linden Dieter gave out June 18 after 94 years and eight months, and Laura left this world for what she believed would be a better one.

Laura most recently lived in Zionsville, Ind., having moved there 30 months ago from her previous home of 60 years, West Chicago, Ill.

She was born October 8, 1919, in Aurora, Ill., the eighth of 11 children of Nicholas Henry and Katherine Mateas Linden. Her father was disabled from a work-related accident, so the family survived by selling candy and religious goods in the store her grandfather, Johann Mateas, operated at the front of their large house on Mountain Street. As a child, Laura was frequently dispatched to alert a neighbor that he was receiving a telephone call at the Linden house, the only one in the neighborhood with a phone.

After graduating from high school, Laura worked as an administrative assistant and a doctor's assistant in Chicago and Aurora but lived at home to assist her ailing mother; she briefly worked as a real estate agent in her sixties. She gave up her career when she was married to John "Jack" C. Dieter on June 14, 1947, at her family church, St. Joseph in Aurora. Laura and Jack met when she reluctantly agreed to go to dinner at her sister and brother-in-law's house. Jack, a neighbor and U.S. Marine home on leave from active duty, also was invited. Though she didn't like that he called her "short stuff" a reference to their nine-inch-plus height difference, she let him drive her home and a great romance bloomed.

They were partners in every way. They loved to travel, reaching all 50 states and several foreign countries. They shared many hobbies, from raising parakeets and chinchillas to collecting stamps, coins, fossils, political campaign buttons, day lilies and irises, and beer cans. Laura often typed Jack's work reports, unpaid. They were married 54 years before Jack died June 19, 2001.

From her earliest days and throughout her life, Laura was bright, mischievous and fun-loving. That theme ran through every story she told and through many events that her daughters remember, though she scoffed when anyone said she was intelligent, creative or beautiful. She was all of those.
She also was a gentle, caring mother. She was deeply involved in her daughters' lives and made a permanent imprint on them, but she gave her daughters the freedom to grow. She was exceptionally gracious and generous, making everyone she met immediately feel comfortable. Her demeanor ensured that she had many friends and that her daughters' friends loved coming over to visit. Her sons-in-law felt warmly welcomed into the family and her nine grandchildren adored her. She was beloved by the caregivers at the assisted-living facility where she lived for the last years of her life. And even the ambulance driver who delivered her to hospice care sought out her daughters to tell them how sweet she was.

Surviving are her daughters, Laurie (Gene) Alvear of Darien, Ill., Jane (Terry) Woolums of Hinsdale, Ill., Mary (Tim McClure) Dieter of Zionsville, Ind., and Carol (Greg) Stutz of Fishers, Ind.; grandchildren, Kathryn Linden, John Robert and Jared Anthony Alvear, Margaret Linden, Colin Dieter Woolums, Amelia Dieter McClure, Eric Joseph, and Anna Katherine and Jane Eleanor Stutz; and several nieces and nephews.

A funeral Mass is scheduled for 11 a.m. Friday, July 11, at St. Mary Roman Catholic Church in West Chicago, Ill., to which Laura belonged for more than 60 years. A reception will follow in the church basement. Memorial contributions may be made to St. Mary Church Building Fund, 164 N. Oakwood Ave., West Chicago, Ill. 60185.

Arrangements entrusted to A.R.N. Funeral and Cremation Services. Condolences may be made at www.arnmortuary.com.