Donna J. Koontz (1937-2021)

KOONTZ, BODKIN, CLARK, VOZENILEK

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 11/30/2021 at 12:01:42

Donna J. Koontz, 84, of Wyoming, Iowa, and formerly of Maquoketa, passed away on Saturday evening, November 27, 2021, at her daughter’s home in DeWitt, Iowa.

A gathering of family and friends celebrating her life will be held from 4 to 7 P.M., Monday, December 6, 2021, at Carson Celebration of Life Center in Maquoketa. Cremation will follow the gathering. A private burial will be held at Sutton Cemetery, rural Maquoketa, Iowa, at a later date.

Donna Jean Bodkin was born on November 26, 1937 in Maquoketa, Iowa, to Ralph Kenneth Bodkin and Audrey LaVonne (Clark) Vozenilek. She attended school in Maquoketa and Morrison, Illinois. She married Jerald Walker Koontz Sr. on November 26, 1955, in Maquoketa, Iowa. He preceded her in death on August 16, 1989.

Donna had first worked as a waitress at the Green Mill Café in Maquoketa and at Hinckley’s Drug Store. Upon her marriage, she had worked various jobs throughout the years including at Clinton Engines, Jackson County Public Hospital in Maquoketa, Maquoketa Care Center, Mel’s Super Valu, Wabash in Tipton, Iowa, and lastly Pacific Coast Feather Company in Maquoketa, Iowa. She had lived in Maquoketa from 1957 to 1973, Oxford Junction, Iowa from 1974 to 1977, moved to Dyersville, Arkansas from 1978 to 1979 and returned to Maquoketa until 2015. From 2016 to present she had lived in Wyoming, Iowa.

Donna enjoyed oil painting on canvas, crafts, taking scenic pictures, planting flowers and gardening, fishing, wild berry picking, Geode rock hunting, mushroom hunting, and ginseng hunting.

Those left to honor her memory include her children, Sylvia (Donald) DeMoss of Baldwin, IA, Jerald Koontz Jr. of Maquoketa, IA, Timmy Koontz of Maquoketa, IA, Marcie (Thomas) Skeffington of DeWitt, IA, Kimberly Lembo of Maquoketa, IA, Christine (Dale) Ehlinger of Brighton, IA, Thelma (Tim) Yarolem of Wyoming, IA, Betty (Randy) Hoist of Brighton, IA, Troy (Carla) Koontz of Lost Nation, IA, Jennifer Thomas of Maquoketa, IA, and Stacie Koontz of Maquoketa, IA; a sister, Judy Koontz of Maquoketa, IA; 42 grandchildren, 102 great-grandchildren, and 1 great-great-grandchild. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, children Deborah Koontz and Dennis Koontz, brothers Jerry, Dennis and Allen, a grandson Kyle Miller, and sons-in-law Salvatore Lembo and Chris Thomas.

In lieu of other expressions of sympathy, a Donna J. Koontz memorial fund has been established.

Online condolences may be left for the family at www.CarsonAndSon.com.