Doris Billhorn

Doris Rose Billhorn

Born: November 29, 1933; Spring Valley

Died: May 7, 2020; Chicago

CHICAGO – Doris Rose Billhorn, 86, of Chicago, and a longtime resident of LaMoille, died May 7, 2020 at her home in Chicago.

Doris was born November 29, 1933 in Spring Valley to Rose and Leo Pinter. Later, upon her mother's remarriage to Alfred Loebach of Leonore, Doris took her stepfather's name.

In January of 1951, Doris married Dale Billhorn of LaMoille. To that marriage was born the magic number of 6 children. Mick Billhorn of LaMoille, Patti Schultz (Leslie) of LaMoille, Janice Myers (Daniel) of LaMoille, John Billhorn (Jill) of Chicago, Jodi Hoare (Frank) of Chicago and Jackie Martin (Kevin) of Princeton.

She is also survived by four sisters. Betty (Chuck) Scoma of LaSalle, Kay (Bud) Bima of Morongo Valley, CA, Alice (Tim) DeMoss of Peru and Peggy (Joe) Burgoni of Peru.

Doris also shared her life with 18 grandchildren and 27 great-grandchildren along with one great-great-grandson, Ryder of Texas.

Doris attended 9 different grade schools over her primary academic career. Undaunted by different curriculums and the disruption of friends and teachers, the A and A+ grades she received would be a precursor to her earning of two college degrees, including the ultimate Master?s Degree she would earn from Vanderbilt University in 1992.

After her family came to rest at a farmstead in Bureau County in the 1940s, Doris attended LaMoille Community High School into her senior year. Although she is prominently featured in the school?s 1951 yearbook as a senior, her final year was interrupted. She did not officially obtain her GED until she returned to LCHS in 1970 for night classes under the careful tutlege of Edith Bauer and the encouragement of Patty Billhorn (Trembly).

After perfecting her care taking skills as a stay at home Mom and area cake baking specialist on the family farm in Clarion Township, in 1971 Doris expanded her working career with a job in the food service department of Mendota Hospital. It was there her nurturing skills really came to fruition, and Doris set her sights on becoming a nurse. In 1974, she returned to her pursuit of education and in 1976 earned an Associate Degree in Nursing from Illinois Valley Community College. Doris then returned to Mendota Hospital and ultimately worked as the office nurse for Dr. Faulk in Mendota.

In 1984, Doris relocated to Nashville, TN. While working in the home health care industry in the Nashville metro area, Doris ultimately pursued a 3-year Master?s curriculum in one of the nation?s first geriatric nurse practitioner programs at Vanderbilt University. In 1992, Doris graduated with Honors from Vanderbilt and after graduation started one of several Director of Nursing jobs in nursing home settings. Before leaving Nashville, Doris was appointed to an Adjunct Instructor position in the School of Nursing at Vanderbilt. Doris returned to Vanderbilt in 2016 to make her personal donation to the nursing school, giving back to the scholarship programs that helped her reach her dreams. Read the Vanderbilt story at https://nursing.vanderbilt.edu/news/tag/news-home/page/18/.

In 1996, Doris returned to Illinois where she also held several Director of Nursing jobs in the City of Chicago. Doris loved the city urban life and all that Chicago had to offer and reveled in trying new restaurants, attending theatre and workshops and hitting neighborhood thrift shops looking for those deals her Mother Rose gave her an eye for. Along with Cubs games and being frustrated by the Bears on Sundays, in 2016 Doris tapped her foot and snapped her fingers to the hip-hop musical sensation "Hamilton," and thought Lin-Manuel Miranda was "such a handsome young man."

After her retirement from nursing in 1999, Doris held a teaching position at Oakton Community College in Des Plaines where she successfully imparted her nursing expertise to hundreds of nursing students. Doris also spent her retirement time sewing blankets for each and every grand- and great-grandchild, traveling to Iowa to see her dear friend Pat Merril at Horse Camp, her nursing mentor Nancy Meidinger in Texas, enjoying beading with her best friend Ellen Zurliene of Nashville and beaming over the ever growing family troop she had created.

Doris was well-known in the professional nursing community for her battles with corporate front offices over issues of patient care as well as the treatment and compensation of the nurses who worked under her direction. Always an advocate of quality care and employee morale, her views did not always square with the corporate world.

Equally well known was Doris' penchant for an inexpensive red wine, a stiff Manhattan and a tequila Brave Bull. Doris could often be found where the action was, maybe striking up a song at the end of the bar.

The nursing legacy established by Doris has carried on in the immediate family. Doris was proud to share with the world that 4 of her granddaughters have pursued or are pursing education and careers in the nursing field. Julia Tyrone (Schultz), Tori Sadnick (Adkins), Denise Billhorn (Barkman) and Melanie Harden (Billhorn) have all followed in their Grandma Doris' honorable nursing footsteps.

Doris had a passion for knick knacks and earrings of which she owned many.

She was preceded in death by her parents, a sister and a grandson.

Memorial arrangements will be announced at a later date via Facebook. Memorial donations to Doris' designated charities (Vanderbilt School of Nursing and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital) will be detailed at that time.