Nursing scholarship established in memory of La Moille woman

Illinois Wesleyan University announced the creation of the Doris R. Billhorn Endowed Nursing Student Scholarship.

Doris’s son, John Billhorn, who grew up in La Moille, is the founder and managing partner of Billhorn Law Firm in Chicago. He established the endowed scholarship.

A 1983 Illinois Wesleyan graduate, Billhorn established the scholarship in honor of his mother, aligning the criteria to assist students from the La Moille area who are studying in the field of nursing, where Doris built her career.

The scholarship is aimed at being awarded annually to an Illinois Wesleyan School of Nursing & Health Sciences student from the local area high schools in Bureau, La Salle, Putnam and Lee counties.

After pausing her educational pursuits for family obligations, Doris returned to high school and earned her GED at age 37, and then went on to earn her associate’s nursing degree from Illinois Valley Community College in 1976. Doris ultimately earned her master’s in geriatric nursing from Vanderbilt University School of Nursing in Nashville in 1992. Doris went on to successfully lead numerous nursing departments in Nashville, and later Chicago, in Director of Nursing positions.

Coincidentally, the Doris R. Billhorn Endowed Nursing Scholarship at Illinois Wesleyan will be the second student scholarship established in Doris’s name. Doris also established a student scholarship in the Nursing School at Vanderbilt in 2016. Doris died in 2020.

Doris left a significant medical/nursing footprint on her immediate family, with seven family members having achieved degrees in the medical/nursing field. Denise (Barkman) Billhorn, (Registered Nurse, ADN), Madi Walker (Certified Nursing Assistant), Madison (Billhorn) O’Sadnick (Radiology Technician), Melanie (Billhorn) Spangler (Registered Nurse, ADN), Tori (Adkins) Sadnick, (Licensed Practical Nurse), Mari Billhorn (Certified Nursing Assistant), and Julia (Schultz) Tyrone, Bachelor’s of Science Nursing, have all furthered Doris’s legacy in nursing.

Also, Illinois Wesleyan is proud to announce the inaugural student recipient of the Doris R. Billhorn Endowed Nursing Student Scholarship is Kaia Robbins (2026), an Illinois Wesleyan nursing major and Princeton High School graduate.