CHRISTIANSON, Donna Jean 'Dotty' 1923 - 2014

CHRISTIANSON, GARDNER, LESTER, THAYER, JENKINS, HANSON, EICHER, MCMURRAY

Posted By: Pat Ludeke (email)
Date: 7/9/2018 at 03:51:02

Donna Jean "Dotty" Christianson, 91, died Sunday, August 10, 2014, at the Rockridge Care Center in Shellsburg, Iowa.

A funeral service for Donna will be held at 2 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 16, 2014, at Hogan-Bremer-Moore Colonial Chapel, 126 3rd Street N.E., Mason City, with Reverend Steve Hansen of Wesley and Grace United Methodist Church in Mason City officiating.

Visitation will be held one hour prior to service time on Saturday at the chapel. A graveside service will be held 2 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, at the Elmwood-St. Joseph Cemetery in Mason City.

Donna was born on the Lester family farm in Martin County, MN, on Feb. 7, 1923, to Jesse and Jessie (Gardner) Lester.

Donna graduated in 1940 from Colwell High School, near Charles City. Later that year, she met a man from Rembrandt, Iowa, with whom she would fall in love and later marry: John Christianson. When America entered World War II, John enlisted in the U.S. Army, and was eventually stationed at a base on Staten Island, N.Y., monitoring coded radio signals, while Donna and their infant son Gale resided in the nearby Bensonhurst neighborhood of Brooklyn. After the war, they returned to Iowa where John continued his work in radio (and, later, television) electronics. They resettled in Rembrandt, where their second son Thomas was born in 1947.

In the late 1950s, the family of four moved to Mason City and made their home in the developing southeast corner of town, on South Vermont Avenue. Donna became a dedicated employee of Safeway Stores while John worked with the E.F. Johnson Company of Garner and Herb & George TV of Mason City.

Donna was the proud mother of two sons who excelled in two unique paths of life. Gale earned a doctorate in history from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, going on to become a tenured professor at Indiana State University in Terre Haute, and a prolific author of several critically-acclaimed works, including biographies of Isaac Newton, Edwin Hubble, and Loren Eiseley. Thomas, soon after high school, enlisted in the Marines in 1966, and earned decorations for heroic service in Vietnam during the battles of the Tet Offensive.

After John’s death in 1976, Donna soldiered on as a widow, but in late 1978 she met Donald McMurray, a Mason City man who also had been recently widowed. Their common interests, along with their unique personality chemistry, helped to forge an enduring friendship, one that would last for 31 years until Don’s sad passing at age 94 in 2009.

For decades, she was a member of Wesley United Methodist Church of Mason City. She worked at Mercy Hospital in Mason City and E.F. Johnson Company in Garner. For nearly twenty years, from the mid-1980s until the early 2000s, Donna was an active caregiver with Hospice of North Iowa, devoting her time, effort and love to terminally-ill patients and their families. She had a great love of home gardening, was active in volunteer work, and will always be remembered as a wonderful friend to her neighbors on South Vermont Avenue. Donna continued to work full-time as long as her health would prevail, working two jobs -- often seven days a week -- to maintain the welcoming home she always wanted to provide for her family, and to be the best mother and grandmother anyone could ask for.

She was preceded in death by her husband, John Christianson; her son, Gale Christianson; both her parents; her brothers, John (Sally) Lester, Roy Lester, and Glen (Patricia) Lester, all of Cedar Rapids; her sisters, Helen (Duane) Thayer, of St. Cloud, MN; Gertrude (Robert) Jenkins, of Louisville, KY; and Mary (Verle) Hanson, of Osage; her niece Roberta Olsen, of Osage; nephew Robert Jenkins, Jr., of Louisville, KY; great-nephews Steven Peterson, of Cottage Grove, WI, and Zachary Graney, of Mason City; and her dear companion of over thirty years, Donald McMurray, and his son Terry McMurray, both of Mason City.

She is survived by her son, Thomas Christianson, of Marshalltown; her brother, Gary (Mickey) Lester, of Cedar Rapids; her sister, Maxine (Frank) Eicher, of Fort Myers, FL; her grandson, Cory (Delia) Christianson, of Grayslake, IL; her niece, Norma Laughery, of Lone Rock, WI; her nephews Gary Van Cleeve, of Minneapolis, MN; Mark Van Cleeve, of San Francisco, CA; Brad Peterson, of Mason City; nieces Amy (John) Gilliam, of Mesa, AZ, and Lori Wagner, of Denver, CO; great-nephew Shane Graney, of Mason City; close friends Nancy (Jim) Fingalsen and Dennis (Darlene) McMurray, of Mason City; Louise Boehnke, of Ventura, and Dani Rollefson, of Clear Lake; two daughters-in-law, Lindalee Galindo, of Mason City, and Rhonda Christianson, of Hiawassee, GA; and many other nieces and nephews.

Cerro Gordo Obituaries maintained by Lynn Diemer-Mathews.
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