LaDonna Brown

Des Moines, IA

Sept. 14, 1929.-Aug. 25, 2013

 

LaDonna Brown, 83, died Sunday morning, Aug. 25 at Wesley Acres Health Center in Des Moines. Memorial services were held on Sunday, Sept. 1 at St. John Lutheran Church in Clarinda.

LaDonna was preceded in death by her parents, Louis and Edna (Hartstack) Harms. LaDonna is survived by her husband, Arnold Brown of Des Moines; brother, LaVern Harms of rural Shambaugh; children, Joy (Rick) Nielsen of Cleghorn, Eldon (Kathy) Brown of Overland Park, KS, and Roger (Rosanne) Brown of Des Moines; and her six grandchildren, Jodi Nielsen of Scottsdale, AZ (Joy's daughter); Greg (Clarissa) Brown of Raleigh, NC, Andrew (Ariel) Brown of Austin, TX, and Steven Brown of Grand Rapids, MI (Eldon's sons); and Diane (Travis) Forbes of Austin, TX, and Linda Brown of Lansing, MI (Roger's daughters).

As a child, LaDonna moved many times with her parents and attended rural schools in Page and Taylor Counties. LaDonna graduated from Clarinda High School in 1948 and obtained a teaching certificate from Northwest Missouri State College in Maryville. LaDonna taught at the Mount Joy one-room school east of Shambaugh, which adjoined the farm of her future husband. Arnold and LaDonna were married on Oct. 21, 1949. When Joy started college, LaDonna started working outside the home, first at Clarinda Memorial Hospital, then at the Clarinda Mental Health Institute, and then 20 years at Lisle Corp.

The family requests memorials to St. John Lutheran Church where she was a long-time member, or to the Clarinda Public Library where she volunteered in her retirement years.