Donnie Collins

Donnie Collins

Queen Creek, AZ

Mrs. Donnie Katherine Martin Collins, 73, passed away Monday, November 14, 2011, at her home in Queen Creek, Arizona. A memorial service was held in Gilbert, AZ in November, 2011. A homecoming service will be held in Utica, Mississippi, at the Utica Christian Church conducted by Rev. Brad Haartzog. Visition at the church will begin at 12:00 on Saturday, February 4, 2011 and the memorial service will begin at 2:00 pm. A private burial at the Lebanon Presbyterian Church Cemetery in the Collins family plot at a later time.

Mrs. Collins was a native of Utica, the daughter of Ernest Noel and Allie Mae Curtis Martin. She is a graduate of Utica High and a member of the Utica Christian Church. She was a flight attendant for Southern Airlines prior to her marriage in 1959 to Thomas Edward Collins III, her childhood and lifelong sweetheart. Together they traveled the world in his career as a U. S. Air Force officer and fighter pilot. When Lt. Colonel Collins was shot down and captured in North Vietnam in 1965, she worked tirelessly with the National MIA/POW Families for the release of her husband and the other POWs. Col. Collins was released in 1973 at the end of the Vietnam War. Donnie continued to follow and assist him in his second career in business and government administration which included directing a state agency, making a campaign for US Congress, and a tour as Assistant Secretary of Labor in Washington. She was a principal witness at the US Senate Hearing on POW's missing-in-action in Dec., 1992. Donnie was a business woman in addition to being a good wife, mother, and community leader. She was a real estate broker who owned and operated Donnie Collins Properties in the 1980's. They retired back to Mississippi, then on to Arizona.

Mrs. Collins is preceded in death by her parents, her youngest son Dr. Edward Noel Collins, and her sister, Elsie Martin Carraway. She is survived by Thomas, her beloved husband of 52 years; her oldest son Martin Travis Collins and his wife Claudia; and four granddaughters, Arlington (Collins) Wightman, Mesa, AZ ,and Ann Hudson Collins (13), Ellis Elizabeth Collins (11), and Marylacy Collins (7), all of Queen Creek; two sisters, Eva Martin Brown of Ridgeland, MS, and Eleanor Martin Mathes of Utica, two brothers, Ethel H. (Bud) Martin of Utica, and Larry Allen Martin of Terry, MS.

In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to Utica Christian Church or Lebanon Cemetery.