Doris Keller

Doris W. (Kumpf) Keller passed away peacefully to be with her Heavenly Father on September 13, 2025 at age of 101.

Doris waws born in Sioux Falls, South Dakota to Rev. Fred and Esther (Hoffman) Kumpf on July 7, 1924. She was raised in Humboldt, SD and Johnson, NE. She was preceded in passing by her parents, her husband Rev. John E. Keller and her sister Winnifred (Kumpf) Voight and her brother Richard Kumpf.

She is survived by her three sons, Rev. David (Susan) Keller and their three children: Phillip (Linda) Keller and their five children; Joel (Pamela) Keller and their two children. She loved to visit and see her ten grandchildren and twenty-seven great grandchildren.

Doris met her husband to be on the first day of classes at Wartburg College in Waverly, IA. She would receive a two-year teacher’s degree at Wartburg and taught middle school in Tecumseh, NE and Dubuque, IA before she and John were married by her father the Rev. Fred Kumpf at Zion Lutheran Church in Johnson, NE on September 6, 1946. Together they followed John’s ministry career that took them to Medina, ND, Sioux Falls, SD, Palatine, IL, Wilmar, MN, Bloomington, MN, back to Palatine, IL, San Diego, CA, back to Palatine, IL, Chicago, IL, Johnson and Auburn, NE, Omaha, NE and to their final residence in retirement at Luther Manor, Wauwatosa, WI.

Not only was Doris a loving wife and mother, her life was filled with love and devotion. She was mainly a stay home mom, but she spent 20 plus years of caregiving service in her volunteer work at Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, IL. In her husband John’s final parish and when he retired from active ministry she served with him as joint visitation ministers for Zion Lutheran Church in Johnson, NE and for their church in Omaha, NE.

Doris and John loved to play golf, listen to jazz music and play bridge which they did up until their last year together.

A special “thank you” goes to the caring staff at Luther Manor and to her son David, who was a weekly visitor and caring son for the many years she was a resident there.

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