Lorene B. Homan

Lorene Barbara Homan, age 90, passed away on 10/23/2019 at Hospice House in Omaha, Nebraska. She was born November 29, 1928 on a farm in Cedar Rapids, Nebraska to John M. Homan and Margaret M. Dieter Homan.

Lorene grew up in rural Nebraska, graduated high school with honors, and attended Creighton University, receiving a Medical Technology Degree in 1949. In applying for her State of California license as a Clinical Laboratory Technologist and to the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, she ranked as one of the highest in the nation in her medical technology tests.

During her college days, Lorene met another medical technologist named Marcia Messmer who was to be her life-long companion. After graduation, both Lorene and Marcia left for California and spent most of the next 42 years working at the top of their profession in various hospitals and private laboratories in San Diego, Los Angeles and Salinas, California. Lorene retired in 1991 and moved to New Cassel in Omaha in 2014 after the death of her beloved, Marcia.

Lorene and Marcia were independent young women who were unique to their generation. Before they were 40 years old, they had toured Europe twice, and in 1962 they toured the Far East & eleven countries in a trip around the world. Having become women of the world and having seen the needs of people in the poorest of countries, they had a calling to help in a way that would combine their talents and expertise as medical technologists and their religious beliefs. In the early 1960s, they joined The Society of Missionaries of Africa and the Lay Mission-Helpers Association of Africa. They volunteered in 1965 and again in 1973 for three-year assignments at the Likuni Mission Hospital in Malawi, Central Africa to provide needed medical tech services and to train African Catholic Nuns and other local students to be medical technologists. These were Lorene’s and Marcia’s proudest moments and achievements. Both came away with golden rings that reminded them of their life-changing experiences in the 1960s and ‘70s while in Africa. St. Paul’s words “For we are God’s helpers” encircle the rings. The rings remained their most cherished possessions, and they proudly wore the rings for the rest of their lives.

Lorene was preceded in death by her parents, by her beloved companion, Marcia, by her brother, Leonard Homan, by her brother-in-law, Bernard Huelskamp, and by her sisters-in-law, Helen and Nelda Homan.

Lorene is survived by her sister, Rita Huelskamp of Omaha; brother, Leo Homan of Omaha; and by brother, Paul Homan and his wife, Rosella, of Washington DC. Lorene is also survived by 12 nieces and nephews and their spouses, as well as a host of grand and great grand nieces and nephews spread throughout the United States.

A funeral service and Catholic Mass will be held at New Cassel Chapel, 900 N. 90th Street, Omaha, Nebraska at 11:00 pm on Saturday, November 16, 2019. A visitation will be held at John A. Gentleman 72nd Street Chapel, 1010 N. 72nd Street, Omaha, Nebraska 5:00 to 7:00 pm on Friday, November 15, 2019. Following the funeral service and Catholic Mass at New Cassel, there will be a private burial service for Lorene at Calvary Cemetery, to be attended by Lorene’s immediate family and by the families of Lorene’s nieces and nephews. Lorene’s immediate family will be greeting family and friends at a reception to be held in the late afternoon and early evening of Saturday, November 16, 2019 at a location and time to be announced later or at the funeral service.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests memorial donations be made to The Lay Mission-Helpers Association, 3435 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 1940, Los Angeles, CA 90010.