WALNUT CREEK, Calif. – Lavon Mae (nee Bach) Hoelmer passed away on July 22, 2025, at the age of 97. She was born in Battle Creek, Michigan, on Jan. 28, 1928, to William Bach and Wilhelmina (Minnie) (nee Wagner) Bach. After graduating from high school in Hinckley, Minn., in 1946, she attended Eitel Hospital Nursing School at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, graduating in 1950. While in nursing school, Lavon met Lowell Hoelmer, who was attending the Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis following his discharge from the Navy at the end of WWII. They were married on Aug. 5, 1950, and moved to Trimont, Minn. where they lived until 1963, when they moved to Concord, Calif., and later to Clayton, Calif. in 1974. Lavon worked as an RN for many years at Mt. Diablo Hospital Medical Center in Concord. Following her husband’s death in 2012, she remained in Clayton until moving to assisted living in Walnut Creek in 2020. In recent years, she was a member of Messiah Lutheran Church in Danville, Calif. She is survived by her oldest son Kim Hoelmer and his wife Maribeth of Newark, Del. and their daughters Kirsten (Compitello) and Claire (both of Pittsburgh, Pa.), son Brendan (New York City), four great grandchildren, her younger brothers Ted Bach and Robert Bach (both of Cornell, Wis.) and many nieces and nephews across the country. She was preceded in death by her husband Lowell, her younger son Ross, three of her brothers and a sister. Lavon will be interred alongside her husband and son at the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery in Dixon, California. A memorial service will be held at Messiah Lutheran Church in Danville, California, at 11 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 2, followed by a luncheon. Contributions in remembrance may be made to Messiah Lutheran Church or The Good Shepherd Fund.