LaVonne Fay Strohm
October 2, 1926 - April 2, 2021
LaVonne Fay (Holm) Strohm died of natural causes on April 2, 2021 in Eureka, California at the age of 94. She was born of Amelia and Rudolph Holm in Argo Fay, Illinois on their farm. She attended Lyons High School in Clinton, Iowa, and the University of Iowa at Iowa City. She graduated Magna Cum Laude with a bachelor’s degree in Journalism in 1948.
LaVonne married her high school sweetheart, Bernard R. Strohm, shortly after WWII on October 24, 1947. Their home was always a gathering spot for Sunday dinners, wedding receptions, and countless visits from friends and relatives. The family lived in Iowa City, Iowa; Columbus, Ohio; and Los Angeles, California. In retirement Barney and LaVonne moved to Grizzly Flats, California in the Gold Rush Country where they thrived on their rural historic property. Her final years were spent in Eureka, California near her two oldest daughters.
LaVonne was active in the school P.T.A., LA City school integration efforts, the Unitarian Church in Santa Monica, and the Willow School Restoration Project in Grizzly Flats. She was an excellent seamstress, writer, and copy editor. She treasured both education and family, and rarely missed a graduation of a child, grandchild or great grandchild. She often used her journalism degree doing interviews, writing newsletter articles, and editing theses and dissertations. She went to work at a local print shop when the youngest of her seven children reached teenage years. She authored a book, Tales from Grizzly Flats, which was published in 2016 when she was 90 years old.
Mom was an adventurous person. She dragged Pop along on a trans-Siberian railway trip, a stay in a yurt in Mongolia, a photo-safari to Africa, a journey to the mountains of Peru, extended stays in India, and a farm tour in New Zealand. In her 70s she flew in a glider piloted by her son-in-law high up over Lake Tahoe! She instigated road trips where there really were no roads, ate fried scorpions which really are not food, and made money stretch when it really wasn’t enough.
She is survived by her seven children: Laura (Haven), Nancy (Peter), Dan (Catherine), Carolyn, Jill (Mark), David, and Janet; thirteen grandchildren and nine greatgrandchildren, with two more on the way. A niece, LuAnne Phillips, and nephew, Tom Hodina (Eliza) also survive her, along with many great nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death, only four months earlier, by her husband of 73 years, Barney. Also preceding her in death were her sisters, Marjory Peters (Fred), and Evelyn Hodina (Sam), and her niece Donna Van Buer, (Duane).
Mom lived a long and wonderful life. If desired, thoughts of remembrance may be sent to lstrohm@sbcglo bal.net, to be shared with the family. A joint celebration of her and Barney’s lives will be held when the pandemic allows. Any donations in her memory may go to the scholarship fund of the University of Iowa, School of Journalism and Mass Communication.