Mary Alice Donery 1904 -2006

DONERY, CALLAHAN

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 7/3/2013 at 22:36:43

Danbury Review
16 August 2006

Mary Alice Donery (age 101) of St. Peter, Minnesota died August 9th at Woodbury Health Care
Center in Woodbury, Minnesota.

The funeral service was held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, August 14, 2006 at the Church of St. Peter in St. Peter. Burial was at St. Patrick's Cemetery in Danbury, Iowa, later that afternoon.

Visitation was on Monday before service time. St. Peter Funeral Home was assisting the family with arrangements.

Mary was born on September 26, 1904, in Danbury, Iowa, to James and Catherine (Callahan) Donery. She entered State service in Minnesota in 1924, working at Willmar State Hospital and Faribault State Hospital until 1928. She moved on to St. Peter State Hospital in 1928 where she attended nurses training and graduated as a registered nurse in 1931. Mary continued working at St. Peter State Hospital until May of 1941 when she entered the Army Nurse Corp. during WWII. Mary was assigned to a hospital in Missouri for several months then assigned to a military psychiatric hospital in Kentucky where she remained until discharged in 1946. She returned to St. Peter State Hospital to work until recalled to military service during the Korean War in 1953. She once again returned to St. Peter and remained there until retirement in 1970.

Once retired, she delivered Meals on Wheels and volunteered at the St. Peter Regional Treatment Center as museum historian until 2005.

Mary was a member of the American Legion, the Retired Officers Association and the Church of St. Peter.

Surviving are her brother Joseph Donery of Jacksonville, FL; nieces and nephews; Gloria Peterson of Austin, TX, Anna Donery of Wauwatosa, WI, Olivia O'Donery of Mount Airy, NC, David and wife Trude Donery of Minneapolis, MN, Douglas Donery of Jacksonville, FL, Catherine and husband Bradley Cooksley of Galveston, TX and Charles Donery of Des Moines, IA; 24 grand nieces and nephews and 2 cousins.

Preceding her in death were her parents; 3 brothers, Walter, Raymond and Francis Donery; 2 sisters-in-law, Verna Donery and Marjorie Donery; and two nephews Raymond Donery and Russell, Peterson.