Obituaries
Loree Hill
Loree Ruth (Grassley) Hill, 68, of Valley City, ND entered heaven surrounded by loved ones on October 3, 2020. She remained undaunted by her three-year battle with cancer, and has received perfect healing and her crown of life. Loree was preceded in death by her parents, Louis and Margaret Grassley. She is survived by her husband of 46 years, Curt; brothers Robert and James; daughter Libby and son-in-law Travis Van Dyke; son Andy and daughter-in-law Hannah Hill; and 9 grandchildren: Margaret, Henry, Ellie, Bethany, Gabriel, and Carlie Van Dyke; and Colin, Arianna, and Amariah Hill.
Loree was born in Waterloo, IA on July 19, 1952. She lived most of her childhood in Boone,
IA , with her mother and two brothers. She graduated from the University of Iowa in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in nursing and worked as a public health nurse for 5 years before choosing to stay home with her children. As a young wife and mother she lived in Omaha and Lincoln, NE before moving back to her home town of Boone in 1983. She moved to Valley City, ND in 1995 and lived there until her death.
She dedicated her life to raising her children and never went back to nursing. Once her children were older, she did go back to work at various jobs ranging from day care, to housecleaning, to administrative assistant. Her favorite job was as a children’s librarian at Ericson Public Library in Boone, IA. She loved reading, and had a passion for children learning, not only to read, but to love reading. In 2014, she became involved with a summer reading program in the inner city Cleveland. She went back every summer and worked tirelessly until nearly the end of her life trying to help instill that love of reading in even more kids.
Loree was very creative and took great joy in fabric and paper crafting. She enjoyed counted cross stitch, handmade greeting cards, sewing and knitting. She put a lot of thought into making each piece specifically for the intended recipient. In her final years, she knit something special for each grandchild, praying for them with each stitch. Another passion of hers was hospitality. A holiday never went by without our family table being opened to someone with nowhere else to go. She was constantly making cookies for college students, taking meals and paper products to someone recently out of the hospital or bereaved, or in other ways taking care of people and inviting them to share her life.
She enjoyed traveling in this country and abroad, visiting England, Italy, Indonesia and China, among others. Upon seeing pictures of famous places on TV, she would say “We were there.” She had a special love of nature, from camping to watching the wildlife from her deck and felt a particular connection to God through nature. However, her very most favorite thing was spending time with her grandchildren. Whether it be at her house or theirs, she loved being with all of them and reading to the younger ones.
Visitation will be held from 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm, Friday, October 9, 2020 at Jamestown First Assembly in Jamestown, ND. For those unable to attend the Friday night visitation, you can record a video remembrance (limit to two minutes) or send a written remembrance which will be read at that time to assembly@bektel. com.
The funeral service is 10:30 am, Saturday, October 10 at Jamestown First Assembly and will also be live streamed at ourheartispeople.com/ live
In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to The Meeting Place Learning Center in Cleveland, OH, the inner city learning center that held such a special place in her heart https://www.tmplc.org/donate or Jamestown First Assembly of God, her home church https://www.kindridgiving.com/app/giving/kindrid-vj0z49f.
Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to the care of the OliverNathan Funeral Chapel, Valley City. An online guestbook is available at www.oliver-nathanchapel.com