Linda Lucille Donlea

CORLEY, DONLEA, FRANCOIS, GAFFNEY, GOLDSMITH, GRAPES, MAINE, OLSEN, STEVENS, WRIGHT

Posted By: Cindy (email)
Date: 9/17/2024 at 19:01:35

Linda Lucille Donlea, 83, of Independence, Iowa and formerly of Winthrop, passed away on Tuesday morning, September 17, 2024, at the Cedar Valley Hospice House in Waterloo, leaving behind cherished memories and a legacy of love and laughter.

Linda was born February 26, 1941, in Manchester to Hubert “Buck” and Nellie (Goldsmith) Grapes. She was the second child of 5 (Mary, Linda, Jean, Tom, Nancy). She was born with nerve deafness and the “hearing of an 80-year-old”. The cause was never known. Her parents were advised by Iowa City to send her to a hearing-impaired boarding school in Omaha. Her parents chose not to send her, she said “Maybe they loved me too much or it could have been financial reasons.” During school classes in Winthrop, Linda was always assigned a front-row seat so she could read the teacher’s lips, and she left class once a week for speech therapy. Most people who met Linda never knew she had limited hearing.

She graduated from Winthrop High School in 1958 then from Cedar Rapids Business College in 1960. After school, she worked for St. Luke’s hospital (inventory) and Bell Telephone. On August 14, 1962, she married Gordon Donlea. Their children were Dennis (Mary Donnelly) Donlea - Winthrop; Kevin (Linda Cook) Donlea - Burke, VA; Michelle (Red) Olsen - Winthrop, Kathleen (Randy) Corley - Arlington Heights, IL; Tom (Julia Maywald) Donlea - Seattle, WA; Teresa (deceased March 2023) (Paul) Francois - Dublin, OH. Lisa - Irvine, CA and Jana (Kevin) Stevens - Wauconda, IL. Linda had 19 grandchildren and 13 Great-grandchildren.

While Gordy ran the business and she raised the children, Linda also answered the phones and did bookwork for Donlea Oil. In her free time, she enjoyed knitting, playing cards, bible study and visiting folks. As a volunteer, she typed the weekly church bulletins with Cindy Klein for many years at St. Pat’s. At 50 years of age Linda went to work as a nursing home med aide in Independence. She did this work for 32 years and “loved every minute of it”.

She loved her siblings, and thoroughly enjoyed all the family gatherings, bus trips and visits to the homes of family members. The “Grapenuts” as they are known are Tom Grapes and his wife Christy (West Union); Mary Ellen Maine (Burlington); Jean Ann Wright (Center Point) and Nancy Gaffney (Lamont).

After Gordy passed in 2007, Linda moved to Cardinal Court in Independence. She was very active acting as Treasurer and took great pride keeping the grounds beautiful, often doing the manual labor herself (mulching, watering, Weeding). Linda was also Treasurer and Secretary for Buchanan County on Aging. For decades, Linda was a member and Circle Leader of Catholic Daughters of America, Court 495. When she was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in November 2023, she retired from all those responsibilities.

In 2011, her kids noticed that her comprehension of conversation (especially on the phone) was dramatically declining, even with the use of her hearing aid (she was completely deaf in her right ear and was down to about 10% in her left). She kept telling them “If I was born with the hearing of an 80-year-old, what do you expect from a 70-year-old?” Linda knew of Kay Schmit’s successful Cochlear implant operation and pursued getting one for herself. She learned that if the surgery was successful, she would never lose any more hearing with the implant in place. She always said, “To be honest, surgery was a piece of cake and no pain but for a person that had never really heard in their life, it took more than a year to hear and understand voices”. She was grateful to friends and families for patience through all these years of learning how to hear.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Winthrop Historical Society, Buchanan County Senior Center, Cedar Valley Hospice, St. Patrick’s Church, St. John’s Church or Catholic Daughters of America or Teacher’s helping Teachers (in honor of Teresa Francois).

Mass of Christian Burial: 10:30 A.M. Friday, September 20, 2024, at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Winthrop, with Rev. David Beckman officiating.

Visitation: 4:00 to 7:00 P.M. Thursday at St. Patrick’s Catholic Church, Winthrop and from 9:30 to 10:15 A.M. on Friday at the St. Patrick’s Parish Center in Winthrop.

Scripture Service: 7:00 P.M. Thursday at the church.

Fawcett-Schmitz Funeral Home, Winthrop, is assisting the family.

Interment: St. Patrick’s Catholic Cemetery, Winthrop, Iowa.

Online obituary at www.jamisonschmitzfuneralhome.com.