1916
Andrew
2017
Andrew Van Der Tuin
April 2, 1916 — April 3, 2017
Andrew (Andy) VanDerTuin died peacefully on April 3, 2017, at the age of 101. He is survived by his children, Andrew Baker VanDerTuin (Connie Van Fleet), Peggy Johnson (Clyde), and Laurie Bunkers (Bill), as well as seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
Born April 2, 1916 in Chicago, Illinois to parents Reina (nee DeGroot) and Johannes VanDerTuin, Andy was forever shaped by his Dutch heritage, the Chicago of Al Capone and the Great Depression. As a boy he worked as a paper boy and fired the furnace in his family’s apartment building before dawn each day to help with rent money. Later he would leave high school early in order to take a series of jobs, including cutting ice cubes at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, then as an office boy for Vitaphone (a subsidiary of Warner Brothers), eventually becoming a runner, couriering just finished film reels from one movie theater to another. Chicago, too, was where this lanky Dutchman learned to skate (once taking second place in the Chicago Silver Skate) and dance (joining a dance club at a local park where he gave lessons and did the tango on exhibition).
As a young man, Andy followed his parents to St. Louis, joining the Missouri National Guard and beginning a long career in appliance sales. There he met Leona Baker, whom he courted on the ice and the dance floor for nine months before their marriage on November, 21, 1940. For 44 years, until Leona’s death in 1984, they carved out a family and home, most of that time in University City, Missouri. It was a life and family for which he was grateful, of which he was most proud.
Private services will be held. In lieu of flowers, the family requests Memorial Donations to the St. Louis Society for the Blind and Visually Impaired, 8770 Manchester Road, St. Louis, MO 63144, www.slsbvi.org.
Born April 2, 1916 in Chicago, Illinois to parents Reina (nee DeGroot) and Johannes VanDerTuin, Andy was forever shaped by his Dutch heritage, the Chicago of Al Capone and the Great Depression. As a boy he worked as a paper boy and fired the furnace in his family’s apartment building before dawn each day to help with rent money. Later he would leave high school early in order to take a series of jobs, including cutting ice cubes at the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair, then as an office boy for Vitaphone (a subsidiary of Warner Brothers), eventually becoming a runner, couriering just finished film reels from one movie theater to another. Chicago, too, was where this lanky Dutchman learned to skate (once taking second place in the Chicago Silver Skate) and dance (joining a dance club at a local park where he gave lessons and did the tango on exhibition).
As a young man, Andy followed his parents to St. Louis, joining the Missouri National Guard and beginning a long career in appliance sales. There he met Leona Baker, whom he courted on the ice and the dance floor for nine months before their marriage on November, 21, 1940. For 44 years, until Leona’s death in 1984, they carved out a family and home, most of that time in University City, Missouri. It was a life and family for which he was grateful, of which he was most proud.
Private services will be held. In lieu of flowers, the family requests Memorial Donations to the St. Louis Society for the Blind and Visually Impaired, 8770 Manchester Road, St. Louis, MO 63144, www.slsbvi.org.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Andrew Van Der Tuin, please visit our flower store.
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