Lauralie Salter

Lauralie Pilcher Salter, daughter of Harold and Catherine Pilcher, sister of William Pilcher, loving wife of Chester “Pete” Salter Jr., devoted mother of Marshall, Michael, Catherine, Susan, Christine and Carolyn, and beloved “Mimi” to her many grandchildren and great grandchildren, passed away after a brief illness on the evening of April 15. A faithful, lifelong Catholic, she departed this life in prayer and surrounded by four of her children.

Lauralie was born on March 30, 1933 in Davenport, Iowa, where she attended St. Paul the Apostle Catholic School and graduated from high school in the Immaculate Conception Academy Class of 1951. She attended Barry College in Miami Shores, Florida before transferring to the University of Iowa in 1953, the year a friend introduced her to returning Korean War veteran, Sergeant First Class Pete Salter of Pleasant Valley, Iowa. They were joined in marriage on May 15, 1954, and remained happily married for forty-five years until Pete’s death in 1999.

Their first child was born in 1955. Five more followed in quick succession. Pete was a salesman for a local mining company. Though a loving father, he traveled weekly in the early years of their family, leaving the young mother to care for their offspring on her own. She did so with love, patience and good humor.  She cooked, cleaned, and nursed for her children, imparted her faith to them, advised, encouraged, educated, entertained them and refereed their disputes. They never knew an hour in all their lives when they couldn’t rely on her love.

With the two youngest still at home, and the four older children in elementary school, she resumed her education at St. Ambrose University while continuing to superintend their lively household, attending to her studies while helping her children with theirs amid the commotion and complaints they regularly produced. She graduated with a degree in education in 1964, and began teaching second grade at Holy Family School in Davenport in 1965.

A gifted educator, she would become the favorite teacher of hundreds of Holy Family students, and their parents, bringing to her classroom the same intelligence, care and encouragement she exercised at home. She was well-liked and admired by her colleagues, and entrusted with the school’s talent show, which under her spirited direction was a highlight of every school year for Holy Family students and their families.  She retired in 1997, after thirty-two years of teaching.

In her later years, Lauralie continued to be the mainstay of her family, an unfailing source of strength and guidance for her children, a thoughtful mother-in-law, a doting grandmother, great-grandmother and aunt, and a faithful parishioner of Our Lady of Lourdes in Bettendorf. She is irreplaceable in the affections of her family and many friends.

In addition to her husband and parents, Lauralie was preceded in death by her brother, Bill, and daughter, Cathy, father-in-law, Chester Salter, Sr. and son-in-law Vince Donnelly. She is survived by sons, Marshall and Michael, daughters, Susan Boyler, Christine Donnelly and Carolyn Peterman, daughters-in-law, Diane and Ann Salter, sons-in-law Randy Kopf, Bruce Boyler and Pete Peterman, twenty grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren, and lifelong friend, Mary Ann Kelly.

A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at 11:00 a.m. Tuesday, October 26, 2021 at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church, Bettendorf. Mrs. Salter was laid to rest at Mt. Calvary Cemetery, Davenport.  Halligan-McCabe-DeVries Funeral Home is assisting with arrangements.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to All Saints Catholic School in Davenport.