Donna Lee Luther

Donna L. Luther, 85, of Kimball, died at the Kimball County Manor on Tuesday, March 19, 2019. Funeral services will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Monday, March 25, 2019 at the Trinity United Methodist Church in Kimball with Pastor Roger Gillming officiating. Burial will be held in the Kimball Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m. at the Church on Monday. Friends may visit www.cantrellfh.com to view Donna’s obituary and leave condolences and stories for the family. Memorials may be given in Donna’s memory to Trinity United Methodist Church or Regional West Medical Center Hospice. The services for Donna have been entrusted to the Cantrell Funeral Home.

Donna Lee Luther was born on February 10, 1934, to Harry L. and Lottie (Price) Shaw on a farm in Custer County near Mason City, NE; the seventh of eight children. She grew up on a farm milking cows, feeding chickens, gardening, stacking oats and hay and walking to school. She graduated from Mason City High School in 1951 and attended Kearney State Teachers College for three summers. She taught country schools in Custer County for 4 ½ years before moving to Iowa. Donna had wonderful memories of those years and so enjoyed hearing from her former pupils. She married Jarrold Leon Luther at the Methodist Church in Mason City on August 3, 1953. They celebrated 64 years of marriage together with family in 2017. To this union two daughters were born; Melodee Jane and Laura Anne. Jarrold and she farmed in Nebraska and Iowa before moving to Kimball in 1959. She worked at the high school kitchen for five years before becoming the first driver for the Kimball County Handibus completing over twenty-four years before retiring in 1999. She was a member of the Trinity United Methodist church in Kimball and was part of the Wesleyan Circle and helped in the kitchen with funerals and weddings. Jerry and she prepared the elements for Communion for over twenty years. She loved to garden, growing flowers and raising raspberries, blackberries and gooseberries, canning and sewing for herself, her children and grandchildren. She made quilts for her family and church bazaars. She completed a quilt for a great-grandchild after moving to the Kimball Manor in June 2017 and was working on another quilt at the time of her death.

She is survived by daughters, Melodee (Craig) Drenkow of Norfolk, NE, Laura Hess (Thomas Phillips) of Russell, KS, grandchildren, Therese (Clint) Martinez of Plainville, KS; Patrick (Monique) Grgurich of Elk Point, CA, Cassandra Drenkow of Willmar, MN and Fred Drenkow of Norfolk, NE. In addition, she is survived by four great-grandchildren, Destiny, Valkyrie, Atticus and Willow. She is also survived by many cousins, nieces, nephews and great nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, Jarrold, in August 2017, her parents, two brothers, four sisters, two nephews and one niece.