Dorothy Mary Hastie

Dorothy Hastie, 96, died peacefully April 22,2014 at Spurgeon Manor, Dallas Center, with Michele and Paul at her side. She is now free of the pernicious Alzheimers's. Dorothy was born in 1917 in Cavan, Ireland to Joseph and Catherine McPhillips. She told of hearing the banshee wail the day her father died when she twelve years old. After finishing boarding school, she attended and graduated from the University of Ireland in Dublin. She then studied at the University in Perpignan, France and taught English to French students there. When the Second World War began, she moved to Belfast, Ireland, to join the Allied effort. It was there she met a handsome U.S. soldier from Des Moines, named Charles. They fell in love, became engaged and corresponded for four years while he served in Africa and Italy. They married in 1946 at Saint Ambrose Cathedral in Des Moines. She and Charles raised their five children in rural Indianola. They were charter members of St.Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church in Indianola. Dorothy was proud to have earned U.S. citizenship. She and Charles made several trips to Ireland to visit her family there. Dorothy was a woman of deep faith; she was a true class act with inimitable style and grace. She was and always will be an inspiration to many. Her family in Ireland are her brothers Seamus McPhillips and Patrick O'Donovan and numerous nieces and nephews. Her sister Mary McPhillips resides in Chicago. Her five children are Carla (Rick) Warner, Michele (Paul) Belden, Stephen (Sandi) Hastie, Deirdre (Edwin) Butler and Sheila (John Goode. She has fourteen grandchildren and many great grandchildren. Preceding her in death were her parents, her stepfather, a sister and a brother and her beloved husband, Charles.