Jeanette Marie Van Dorn

Jeanette Marie Van Dorn (Jay), of Cheyenne, Wyoming passed away on September 6th, 2026 at Davis Hospice.

Jeanette (100 and ½ years old) was born on March 6, 1926, in Crandon, Wisconsin to Minnie and Emery Lutterman, outliving her 3 brothers and 2 sisters. She graduated from Lincoln High School in In Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Because of her outstanding education/grades, she was recruited by the FBI during her senior year and moved to Washington D.C. upon graduation. Working under J. Edgar Hoover, her duties included identifying fallen soldiers who returned home without identification. She described the difficult task as one of the most important jobs she ever did. As she and other women compared the fallen soldiers’ fingerprints to those on file, she said, “As hard as it was, we would all rejoice when we found a match; it’s the only way families would learn the fate of their loved one.”

Jeanette met her husband, Edward on a Troop Train (the discharge train). As the story goes, Ed asked the conductor to seat him next to “that girl”, pointing out Jeanette, when she boarded the train. Jeanette and her roommate spent an evening meal with Ed and when a girl came around their table offering to take pictures for $1, Ed paid for the picture, slid over next to Jeanette and put his arm round her. Mom told us, “That’s when I knew for sure he was interested in me and not my roommate.” The rest is history. Jeanette and Ed raised 11 children (7 sons, 4 daughters) with two sets of twins.

Jeanette was known as a top-flight culinary baking artist, a master gardener, floral arranger, and creative craftsperson. While living in White Plains New York, she was famous for her Christmas baking, especially for her Gingerbread Men and Gumdrop Fruitcake, and would make a few extra dollars baking for others around the holidays. Within the 60 years of Cheyenne life, in between raising children, Jeanette was active in the Cheyenne Garden Club, 4-H Leadership, and the Cathedral of St. Mary Guild. Even after her retirement, she continued to bake pies for a local diner. Originally they ordered 3 pies per day, but in the end she was making upward of 18 pies a day, due to popular demand.

After a vacation in the 60’s to Wyoming to see her brother Ray and their oldest child, Tom, who was living and working on Ray and Bonnie’s ranch in Wheatland, she and Ed fell in love with the openness and beauty of Wyoming and decided it would be a great place to raise the other children. In 1965, they sold their White Plains home, packed up two station wagons with the boys in one car and the girls and babies in the other, and headed for Cheyenne. Some of the older children may not have been thrilled with the move! The youngest child, Jeffrey, was the only child born in Wyoming.

Jeanette was extremely thrifty and even while living in Life Care, would talk about how much waste there was in the world and wanted to find uses for any materials that couldn’t be reused at Life Care.

She is survived by Raymond, Janice, twins - Richard (Kathleen) and Steve, Jennifer (Dick), Jill Kline (Ron), and twins Larry and Linda. She also leaves behind 16 grandchildren, 6 great-grandchildren, and numerous nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her loving husband, Edward Harris Van Dorn (4/11/2011) and her sons James M. Van Dorn (3/11/2016), Jeffery A. Van Dorn (6/28/2018) and Thomas E. Van Dorn (11/16/2021), his wife Sharon and son Michael.

A funeral service will be held on September 21st, 2026, at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Cheyenne. In lieu of flowers, despite Jay’s love for them, please consider a donation to Cheyenne Botanic Gardens, specifically the Paul Smith Children’s Village.