Lois C. Thor, 83, formerly of Naperville, who embraced new interests in her later years, died Sunday, March 17, of complications from Alzheimer’s disease in Brighton Gardens, Wheaton.
Born in Clinton, Iowa, and raised on the family farm, Mrs. Thor received a bachelor’s degree in home economics from Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa. To help pay for school, she worked for several years as a secretary for Rock Island Arsenal in the Quad Cities.
“My mother was a very resourceful woman who valued education and never backed off from a challenge,” said her son Eric. “She also had an adventuresome spirit.”
In the 1940s, Mrs. Thor briefly lived near Los Angeles, where she was a secretary for Douglas Aircraft. Soon after, she married Murner Thor and they began raising a family. Job transfers moved the couple around the country. They lived in Iowa, Massachusetts and Wisconsin, and eventually settled in Naperville in 1963.
“It couldn’t have been easy moving around as much as she did, but she made it work,” her son said. “It helped that she maintained a positive attitude and always became active within the communities we lived.”
While raising her children, Mrs. Thor volunteered as a 4-H Club leader, Scout troop leader, after-school tutor and Sunday school teacher. She also was involved in local parent-teacher organizations and charity drives.
“She was an inveterate volunteer, especially when it came to kids,” said her son. “No matter how busy she was, she always found time to help out in some way.”
In 1977, Mrs. Thor moved into Pebblewood Condominiums in Naperville, where she was president of the owners association. She also worked for several years as a secretary for Illinois School Consulting Service in Naperville. Two years ago, she moved to Brighton Gardens, an assisted-living facility.
From the early 1970s, after her divorce, Mrs. Thor became involved with new interests and organizations. She became an environmentalist and a member of the Sierra Club. She volunteered as a Braille typist, translating textbooks. She took up dancing, participating in ballroom dance competitions through Arthur Murray Dance Studio in Naperville and became a member of the Naper Squares, a square dancing group in Naperville.
Mrs. Thor learned how to canoe, cross-country ski and roller skate. In her retirement, she also traveled, wrote poetry and played the piano.
“I really came to admire her, the way she lived her life and how she remained so inquisitive even into old age,” said her daughter-in-law Jane Friedman. “She became a model and real inspiration for me.”
Mrs. Thor was a member of Knox Presbyterian Church in Naperville.
Other survivors include two sons, Gary and Carl; a sister, Rachel Streib; and four grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 9:30 a.m. until services begin at noon Monday in Beidelman-Kunsch Funeral Home, 117 W. Van Buren St., Naperville.
