Donna Lou Chantry

57 years later of marital bliss and forever thereafter, Donna (Carroll) Chantry (Momma Donna) got her official angel wings in Juneau, Alaska on November 20, 2024. She was born on January 25, 1946, in Washington. Her life-time soulmate and spouse Dean and her met in college while both were pursuing degrees in education in Ellensburg, Washington in the 1960s. They both were teachers in Kelso, Washington after they graduated college. Momma Donna was a special education teacher. As Dean would describe to their daughters, he would repeatedly watch from a distance Momma Donna interact with her students in the classroom and was always in awe of her care and patience with her students and would fall in love with her over and over and over again. They moved to Juneau, Alaska in the 1976. They were part-owners in a health food store and a Montessori school, and both retired from the University of Alaska Southeast. In the early 1980s, they shared their loving hearts with and opened their home to six teenage daughters, who desperately needed a safe, loving, nurturing family, and thus, they started their forever family with the Chantry girls. Her daughters knighted Momma Donna as "St. Momma Donna" as she had the patience of a saint especially to instantly raise six teenagers. Their loving home environment extended way beyond their daughters – all of their daughters' friends always had a family and home with Momma Donna and Dean including some who were homeless and lived in their home. Her love extended way beyond her daughters – she rocked it as a grandmother and great-grandmother with 13 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren and as an auntie to lots of nieces and nephews. She was an avid reader and had the most perfect penmanship with the gift of writing and notorious for her Special Moments cards with her written words of wisdom. Momma Donna was truly the most graceful, caring, compassionate, understanding, supportive, and wise person, who loved unconditionally. She was a very positive influence and role model to her family and left the lasting question in her family when facing adversity: what would Momma Donna do with that easy answer -- empathy. She is preceded in death by her parents Ruth and Lou Carroll, her daughter Larissa Siegler, bonus daughter Thimy Martinez, and grandson Nathaniel Trice. She is survived by her husband Dean Chantry and children: Laura Trego; Theraesa Trice (Nate); Paula Parsons Grubb (Tom); Mellissa Parsons-Wilfong (Carlos); Tina Pereira; and bonus neighbor daughter Kris LeMaster. She's also survived by her siblings: Bob Carroll (Geneva) and Jim Carroll (Christina). In closing with a quote by Dr. Seus, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."