Obituary
Dinah Patricia Wright Lohmeier, resident of Rock Island, Illinois, passed away February 7th, 2024 from complications of esophageal cancer. She was 70 years old.
Dinah was born on March 4th, 1953 in Louisville, Kentucky. She was the second child and eldest daughter of Thomas Jefferson Wright and Patricia Wright. Born into a Catholic family, she attended Mother of Good Counsel from kindergarten through middle school and Sacred Heart Academy for high school.
Dinah was an enthusiastic student and swimmer, spending her summers at the Plantation Country Club and swimming on their national championship team in 1969, contributing to the Women’s Medley Relay win as their freestyle swimmer. She was also very active at home, helping to raise her younger sisters Robin, Holly, and Kelley. Her sister’s described her as very loving, caring, and nurturing; always there to help them with any problems they had. She was like a second mother to them in many ways.
DInah graduated from high school in 1971 and enrolled in the University of Kentucky, later transferring to Indiana University. She was undeclared during her time in college, beginning to focus on business and television/radio production, working for WLKY TV in Louisville both during and after her time in college, but she left both IU and UK before graduating.
It was at UK that Dinah began dating her future husband, Robert Hans Lohmeier. The two began dating while they were both attending the university, and were soon married following Robert’s graduation. Her family remembers Dinah becoming more relaxed during this time and enjoying life. The day of their wedding, January 10th, 1975, there were severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings throughout the Louisville area, but fortunately the ceremony was unaffected. The couple’s reception was intended to be a “dry” affair, but several of the groomsmen and other guests brought flasks of alcohol to the celebration.
Following their marriage, the couple moved to Robert’s hometown of Rock Island, Illinois, where they would live for the next 47 years. Before the birth of their children, Dinah worked in broadcast, taking a position at WQAD in Moline, Illinois. In 1977, the couple celebrated the birth of their first child Kristi. Sadly, less than a year later, Dinah’s mother Patricia died due to complications stemming from lung cancer treatment. To help her grieving father, Dinah and Robert essentially adopted Kelley, bringing the young teen from Louisville to Rock Island, acting as her parents until her graduation from high school. During this time, Dinah and Robert would have two other children; Brett in 1979, and Eric in 1981. Having 3 children in 3.5 years meant this time of life was quite busy, but she was a supermom in the eyes of her children, a dear friend to all who knew her, and a giving family member who always valued precious time altogether – particularly giving much time and effort to plan family reunions on the Lohmeier side of the family – because family meant everything to her.
While Dinah was primarily a stay at home mother during this time, she also helped at Robert’s business, a State Farm Insurance agency. She assisted in keeping the operations of the business running smoothly for a decade and a half, and it was during this time that she was diagnosed with breast cancer, fighting it bravely and keeping it in remission before leaving the office to pursue her own career, starting at Sedona temp agency and eventually ending up at Alcoa Aerospace where she was an administrative assistant until her retirement in 2019.
She enjoyed gardening and all things plants, exercising and taking walks. She volunteered with the local Race for the Cure Susan B. Kohman organization and Gilda’s Club, giving back to organizations that gave her so much. She treasured time with her friends, going for coffee, and taking shopping trips, and spending time with her grandchildren at all stages of their lives.
Dinah was a loved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend. She was always ready to give a bit of advice or a shoulder to cry on. She never sought attention or praise, wanting only to quietly love her family, both biological and logical. She never had an unkind word for anyone, living the ideal that you should look for the good in people and focus on their positive qualities instead of speaking negatively about others.
Dinah leaves behind her beloved husband, Bob, their children, Kristi, Brett and his wife Libby, Eric and his wife Donna, and grandchildren Zelda, Bodhi, and Gwendolyn, as well as sisters, brother, brothers- and sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, great nieces and nephews, and many many friends and former co-workers from a life fully lived.
She will be tearfully and completely missed, but the love she so freely gave will live on in all who truly knew and treasured her.
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