Donna May Nelson

1929 - 2025

Donna May Nelson

March 31, 1929 - March 2, 2025

Tucson, Arizona - Donna May Nelson passed away peacefully on March 2, 2025 in Tucson, Arizona. Donna was born Easter Sunday, March 31, 1929 to George and Elsie Lind in Ponca City, Oklahoma.

Donna spent her youth, during the Great Depression, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After high school, Donna attended the University of Minnesota where she met her future husband, Walter Nelson, a WW II Navy veteran and forestry major. They were married in June 1950 and soon moved to the Pacific Northwest. The newlyweds spent their first summer at the Blue Slide fire lookout station in the Cascade Mountains near White Pass, Washington. They moved around the PNW before settling in Olympia, Washington with their four sons.

Donna was an avid reader and loved writing. She wrote many manuscripts, two adolescent stories being family favorites. One titled the "Mixed-Up Hound," a story about a lost dog that only understood Spanish, ending up in an English-speaking family. Another about families moving out west during the 19th century, and the trials and difficulties they encountered; especially crossing the Snake River Canyon. Her sons recall the sound of her manual typewriter late at night while falling asleep. She also loved playing piano. With the number of moves the family made, the one item never left behind was her piano.

Donna loved raising her four sons and was very involved in their sports activities: baseball, football and especially swimming. She and her husband were among the founding members that started the Thurston Olympians Swim Club in Olympia, WA. She spent many weekends with friends at swim meets. All as she worked many years for the State of Washington, in vital statistics and water resources.

She became the family historian for her sons and grandkids. She helped fill in the gaps providing details about the family tree. For over fifty years she was actively involved with her church, Saint Mark Lutheran of Lacey, WA where she taught Sunday school and played in the bell choir before moving to Tucson to live with her son George and family.

Donna is preceded in death by her husband Walter. She is survived by three sons: George (Elvia), Steve (Tara Dowd), and Gary Morrison-Nelson (Lynell). Donna was shortly followed in death by her son Jon (Lisa Hahn). She is also survived by grandchildren Lyla, Cassius, Louis, Reily, Ryan, and Emma.