Donna Kesler Wilkins

1933 - 2025

Donna Kesler Wilkins
12/30/1933 - 07/21/2025
Donna Kesler Wilkins, 91, passed away peacefully at her home in Houston, Texas, on July 21, 2025. Mom was born on December 30, 1933, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, to Grace Taggart Kesler and George William Kesler. She and her younger brother, Bill, were raised in Memphis, where she attended East High School. Shortly after her graduation, the family moved to Houston, and she began her studies at the University of Houston. During this time, Mom met the love of her life, Robert Metcalf Wilkins, a Rice University graduate who had just returned from a year-long deployment in Korea as a Captain in the U.S. Marine Corps and was attending graduate business school and law school at the University of Houston. Donna and Bob began their fifty-year marriage on October 12, 1956, while she was working for Humble Oil and Refining Company, and he started what became a 37-year legal and executive career at Prudential Insurance Company.

As a born-and-raised Tennessee girl, Mom took pride in her relationships with her family, friends, and church. In the early 1960s, Linda and Ellen came along. After that, if Mom wasn't looking after Dad and us, she could be found volunteering at our schools, reading books and newspapers for the Taping for the Blind program, playing tennis, singing in the choir, and volunteering at her beloved Chapelwood United Methodist Church. Every evening over dinner, she would update the family on everything from current events to the stock market to politics - we had our own live-in news anchor. When Dad retired in 1990, they set off to pursue their shared passion for traveling around the globe with church and Rice friends, and enjoyed creating experiences with family and friends.

Over the years, the family expanded exponentially. Mom is survived by her daughters, Linda Wilkins Barber and her husband, Kevin, and Ellen Wilkins Rutherford and her husband, John; her brother, George William Kesler, Jr., and his wife, Toni; and her nieces, Kathie Reyer, Kimberly Kesler, and Kellie Kesler, as well as many Tennessee cousins and family members. Mom was "Nonna" to her five grandchildren, Paige Barber Huber and her husband Tom, Claire Barber, John Rutherford Jr., and his wife Abby, Amanda Rutherford Lodge and her husband Eric, and Robert Rutherford and his wife Jordan. Nonna was also blessed with seven great-grandchildren: Margaret, Catherine, and John Rutherford III (Jack), Olivia, and Rutherford (Ford) Lodge, and Mary Ellen and Grant Rutherford.

We will miss Mom immensely and are grateful to have had her actively in our lives for so many years. Our family extends its gratitude to the many wonderful caregivers who gave Mom their love and support, especially Maria Felix Ortiz, Gladys Fiemawhle, Kyra Sanders, and Ursula Ibennah.

A celebration of life will be held on Friday, September 12, at 2:00 p.m. in the Chapel at Chapelwood United Methodist Church, 11140 Greenway Street, Houston, Texas, 77024.

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to the Chapelwood Foundation.