Lillian Marie Weber was born on May 6, 1915, on a farm in Iowa, and passed away on May 5, 2016, leaving behind a legacy that we are never too old or too tired to leave the world better than we found it. At 96, she could have settled into a quiet retirement, but instead she spent four and a half years making dresses for children in Africa. One day before her 101st birthday, she finished dress number 1,234.
She left behind 5 children, 12 grandchildren, and 20 great-grandchildren. Her greatest gift was showing us what matters all the way to the end. Even in her final hours, the needle and thread moved until they couldn’t move anymore.
A Life Built on Hard Work and Family
Lillian grew up during the Depression with three siblings. Money was tight. Her mother made all of her dresses by hand. According to her obituary, she graduated from Wyoming High School in 1933 and married Francis Weber four years later. When World War II began, Frank joined the Naval Seabees, and Lillian went to work at the Moline John Deere plant, making ammunition for 75mm guns.
Together, they raised 5 children, 4 daughters and 1 son.
Frank and Lillian built a life rooted in family and faith that lasted nearly 70 years, until his death in 2007. Afterward, Lillian stayed on the farm. She tended her garden, watched birds, and baked. But at 96, after giving up her driving licence, she realized something was missing. She needed a purpose.
She then learned about the nonprofit Little Dresses for Africa in 2008. Volunteers turn pillowcases into dresses and send them to girls living in poverty across Africa and beyond. The idea is powerful. A dress can tell a young girl she matters.
Lillian told WQAD News she remembered the years, “we went without a lot of things because we couldn’t afford it,” she said. “And these little girls, I can imagine that they have a lot of feelings maybe even worse than what we had to go through.”
She decided to act. Her plan was to sew her 1,000th dress by her 100th birthday on May 6, 2015.
One Dress at a Time
Each dress took about four hours to make from start to finish. Lillian Weber never rushed through them. She made each one special, adding patterns, appliques, and small stitching details that set them apart.
“I think that’s very important to have something different for these little girls,” she told NBC News. “I imagine four or five of them standing in a row, and they got a little dress on and they’re all different.”
By the time Lillian turned 99 in 2014, she had made 855 dresses. WQAD, a local news station, featured her story that year in an episode called “Pay It Forward.” International press outlets picked it up. The woman who sewed a dress every day for children she would never meet became known around the world.
Rachel O’Neill, who founded Little Dresses for Africa, told NBC News that Lillian Weber had become her hero. “I never get tired of looking at them,” O’Neill said. “She likes to do the little extra, and believe me, the little girls love it.” The organization created a special shipping fund for Lillian’s dresses.
A year later, Lillian celebrated her 100th birthday. By then, she had already reached her goal of 1,000 dresses two months early. Letters arrived from around the world that spring. More than 400 of them came through SVP Worldwide, the company behind Singer, Husqvarna, Viking, and Pfaff sewing machines.
Lillian kept sewing every day. “It keeps me going after 99 years,” she said. “I don’t know what I would have done if I hadn’t found this to do. I have been blessed with this.”
She had no plans to stop. “If I’m still able to do it I’ll continue all the way through,” she told NBC. “Because I know I’m making little girls happy. And that is very important to me.“
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A Legacy of Love
Lillian died at 6:30 on a May evening in 2016. Her daughter LeAnn, who shared her birthday, told WQAD News, “She was slowing down but was still sewing dresses this week“. The dresses kept her connected to a purpose larger than herself.
Her funeral was held at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Bettendorf, where her faith had been nurtured for decades. The family asked that memorial donations be made to Little Dresses for Africa.
After her death, Rachel O’Neill told WQAD News 8, “Little Dresses for Africa has been blessed beyond measure by not only the beautiful dresses that she made but also the worldwide attention that she brought to the ministry,” On behalf of the children in Africa, she said, “Zikomo,” which means thank you in Chichewa.
Lillian Weber lived through a century of change. She survived the Depression, supported the war effort, raised a family, and lost a husband. She could have decided she had done enough. Instead, at an age when most people have long since stopped working, she found a way to matter. She picked up a needle and thread and got busy.
Every dress she made carried a message to plant in the hearts of little girls that they are worthy. Lillian never met the girls who wore her dresses, but she knew they were out there. That was enough to keep her going, one dress at a time, until the very end.
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