Dinah Jeanne Holmes

Dinah Jeanne Farrar Holmes, of Hutsonville, Illinois, passed away December 19, 2021 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Vincennes, Indiana, from thrombocytopenia due to breast cancer that had metastasized to her liver. She was born at Smoky Hills Air Force Base in Salina, Kansas, on July 12, 1949, to Donald Dow Farrar and Dorothy ("Dottie") Farrar. She spent most of her childhood in Hutsonville and neighboring Palestine, graduating from Hutsonville High School in 1967. She was also the Wabash River Boat Race Queen of 1967. In the winter of 1967, she married Keith Holmes, who survives her. While Keith was stationed overseas with the USAF, she attended Indiana Business College, but her real calling was as a mother and a farm wife. They spent a few years in the Black Hills of South Dakota, which they loved; when Keith left the service to return to his family's Hutsonville farm in 1973, she drove a grain truck and did many other support tasks for the farm while raising their two children. She was active in the First Christian Church of Hutsonville for a number of years, where she often shared her beautiful singing voice. She was a passionate advocate for her children's education and served on the school board of New Hebron Christian School. She loved to travel, to camp, and to meet people, and after her children were older, she did a great deal of both, largely by motorcycle. She made several lifelong friends from across the country through the International Brotherhood of Motorcycle Campers' campouts. After Keith's retirement from farming, she traveled with him to Winter Haven, Florida, and back to South Dakota, where he worked as a heavy equipment operator. Dinah was a Maker of Things all her life. She sewed her own wedding dress and many of her and her young children's clothes and Halloween costumes. Later in life, she hand sewed beautiful miniature quilts. She was also a knitter and crocheter and did intricate beadwork of many kinds. Dinah was predeceased by her brother Rod Farrar. In addition to her husband, she is survived by a brother, Jim Farrar of Oblong; a daughter, Lana and Joshua Holden of Terre Haute, Indiana; a son, Jared and Sara Holmes of Hutsonville; and two grandchildren, Connor Holmes and Dawn Holmes. Dinah's wish was to be cremated, and her ashes will be interred with her husband's after his passing. The Goodwine Funeral Home in Robinson is in charge of arrangements.