Lorraine Berneice Willemssen Caliva's Obituary
Lorraine Caliva, the daughter of William Willemssen and Evalina La Fleur, Lorraine Berneice Willemssen was born in her family’s home just outside Sioux City, Iowa on November 17, 1936. Lorraine spent the first decade of her life growing up on the farm in the Sioux City area where she was happy, at ease, and developed many lasting memories. Some of her earliest memories include smelling fresh baked cinnamon rolls that her mother had baked as she and her siblings came home from school, as well as her mother’s from-scratch angel food cake and famous pies. This joy of baking is something Lorraine held onto throughout her life as she shared her talent for delicious baked goods with friends and loved ones. Growing up in Sioux City included roller skating with her friends, catching fireflies at night, sliding off the barn roof into a haystack, and family fishing trips—memories she fondly looked back on as the “Mayberry Way.”
When Lorraine’s parents decided to move the family to California in 1947, they packed up five children aged 14, 12, 10, 8 and 7 for the long journey. Her first memory on arrival in Los Angeles was a traffic jam. Growing up in California meant living at a different pace. Lorraine was skipped ahead a grade twice in elementary school, and in junior high she learned to play the viola and performed with the school orchestra and discovered a love for journalism that she used to write an award-winning essay on patriotism. Lorraine was an exceptional, dedicated student throughout all her schooling and the first in her family to graduate from high school.
In her final year of high school, Lorraine became good friends with Virginia Caliva. After graduation they remained good friends and worked together at the Federal Reserve Bank. Lorraine was eventually introduced to Virginia’s brother George in the summer of 1954, when he agreed to drop them off at the beach with a group of girlfriends. Remembering him as good looking and self-assured, Lorraine would see George at group activities for several months before dating. They eventually became engaged in September 1956, wed on February 2, 1957 and immediately left on a three-week honeymoon of skiing at Mammoth Mountain in California.
Lorraine and George had four daughters: Karen, Donna, Debra, and Carole. After moving the family to a new development in La Mirada in 1960, Lorraine was proud to create a home where they could invite relatives for holidays and have nice, big backyard barbecues, game nights, and get-togethers.
After growing up in an active Catholic household and continuing to attend services into early adulthood, Lorraine became good friends with Latter-day Saint neighbors across the street. Lorraine let her daughters attend mid-week afternoon Primary sessions, and eventually welcomed two ward missionaries into their home who gave the family a Book of Mormon and started teaching the Gospel. Soon after, full-time missionaries continued teaching the family lessons and Lorraine found something that she felt was missing from her Catholic life since she was younger. The family was eventually baptized in 1969.
While her children were growing up, Lorraine continued her joy of baking by taking cake decorating classes and teaching some of the local ladies in the ward how to decorate their own cakes. Lorraine made a lot of birthday and special occasion cakes for family and neighborhood friends, made about a dozen wedding cakes forward marriages and baked and decorated the wedding cakes for daughters Karen and Donna. Lorraine also enjoyed teaching her daughters to sew and helped develop impressive talents that would lead to professional careers in the field of sewing, costuming and formal attire.
Later in life, Lorraine moved to Orem, Utah, where she enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren, getting involved with genealogy including courses at BYU and trips to with family to Iowa, Illinois, Maryland, New York, Washington DC, Puerto Vallarta, Dominican Republic, Berlin, Montreal, Quebec, Belgium, The Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Italy and Germany. She was active in her ward community and neighborhood and served on her HOA board for a number of years.
After having 2 knee replacement surgeries, dementia started to cause difficulties in Lorraine’s life that would not allow her to remain in her home. She moved to Covington Assisted Living and then to Extended Care at Covington. The family wishes to express thanks to all the staff at Covington who lovingly helped her family to take care of her. We also appreciate the care of Renew Hospice for the last few weeks.
Lorraine is preceded in death by her parents, 3 brothers- Jerome Willemssen, Dwayne Willemssen and William Willemssen Jr.- and a granddaughter-in-law Jacqueline Jeffreys. We are sure she received with tenderness her newest great-granddaughter, Kacely Harrison, who passed away a few days after Lorraine’s death.
Lorraine is survived by one sister Donna Hines of Henderson, Nevada; 4 daughters- Karen (Michael) Jeffreys of Orem, Utah; Donna (Clay) Anderson of Trabuco Canyon, California; Debra Beebe of Santa Clarita, California; Carole (Roger) Harrison of Orem, Utah; 16 grandchildren and 20 great-grandchildren.
Services for Lorraine will be held Friday October 11, 2024, at 11 am at 670 East 800 North Orem. Flowers are welcome if desired or in lieu of flowers the family would appreciate a donation to the Dementia Society (dementiasociety.org). Interment will be at the Orem City Cemetery
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