The journey of life for Dolores Swank began on March 22, 1931. Dee was born in a farmhouse east of Monroe, IA. She was the only child of Herman and Elizabeth (De Heer) Swank. She attended Cottage Grove Elementary school near her farm home in Monroe. Her family then purchased a farm and farm ground north of Pella. She graduated from 8th grade at European School #2. Dee graduated from Pella Community High School in 1949. Coming from a country school, she loved all the new friends and activities of a “larger” school. She played basketball on Pella High’s first women's basketball team. She was a majorette for the Pella Marching Dutch and acted in many school plays.

After graduation, she went to work at the Harry Fitch Photographic Studio in Oskaloosa, IA. While there, she belonged to Beta Sigma Phi sorority. She became queen of that sorority in 1951.

The Swank family had relatives in Denver, CO and took their family vacations there almost every year. On one of those visits, her cousins set her up on a blind date with a local guy named George. George had relatives in Pella and had visited there a couple times, but he’d never heard of the Swank family. The blind date must have gone well because they wrote each other from time to time. The following year Dee went to Colorado again and they had a couple more dates. George then got drafted into the Armed Forces during the Korean War. They wrote to each other every day while he was overseas! After his departure from the service, he made a couple trips to Pella and then asked for her hand in marriage. In total, they had only seen each other about a half dozen times; they got to know each other via the mail! For you younger folks, they didn’t have cell phones or the internet back then and phone calls were expensive and considered extravagant.

On March 4, 1953, Dee married her pen pal, George, at the Second Reformed Church in Pella. They lived in Colorado

Springs, CO and Oskaloosa, IA for brief periods of time but decided to settle in Pella.

Craig, their only son, was born on March 26, 1962. George (coach) and Dee (cheer leader and manager) took great pleasure in watching Craig’s Punt, Pass and Kick accomplishments as well as watching him compete in multiple sports in high school and college.

Craig married Kathy Stoudt in 1991. They gave Grandpa and Grandma three wonderful grandchildren; Jacob (Jake), Samantha (Sami) and Tyson (Ty). They have been their grandparents’ pride and joy. Grandpa (still coach) and Grandma (still cheer leader and manager and sometimes nurse) loved watching their grandchildren compete in various sports and activities.

Dee was a member of Trinity Reformed Church. She enjoyed winter trips to Ft. Lauderdale, cruises and playing the penny slot machines in Las Vegas. Dee said she was never very athletic, but for those of you who knew her, she was far and away the most competitive member of the family!

Several years ago, Craig was talking with his parents. They mentioned they had saved all those love letters from George’s military career for over 50 years. Craig asked to see them. They said that on one of their recent camping trips, they brought all the letters to the campfire, read each letter one more time and tossed them in the fire. Apparently, they were too intimate to share!

Her journey through life is complete and a new and better journey began on June 28, 2026. Those left to cherish Dee’s memory are her son, Craig, and his wife, Kathy; three grandchildren, Jake, and his wife, Leah (Des Moines, IA), Sami, and her husband, Chris (Kansas City, MO) and Ty (Missoula, MT) Wassenaar; and one great-grandchild, Georgia, Jake and Leah’s daughter. Dee was preceded in death by her parents, Herman T. and Elizabeth (Liz De Heer) Swank; and her parents-in-law, Albert and Bertha (Ulrich) Wassenaar.

Memorials may be given to Hospice of Pella.