Helen K. Donney

Helen Krupa Donney, 89, most beloved mother and grandmother, passed into God’s arms on Wednesday, October 8, 2014. Helen was born on February 6, 1925 and spent her early years in Olyphant, PA, as part of a very close-knit, hard-working, and largely immigrant Ukrainian community. Her parents, Harry and Rose Krupa, predeceased her in the 1950s and 1960s respectively. Helen and her six sisters moved to Yonkers, NY just prior to WWII, and forged a new life once again based on close family support and hard work. Helen was an outstanding academic student at Commerce High School, and eagerly participated in the school’s extracurricular activities including as co-Captain of the cheerleading squad. She took additional training in secretarial and administrative skills, which enabled her to work for various highly placed corporate executives in NYC-based companies. She continued to live in Yonkers through this period where she met Gene Donney [Eugene D’Onofrio] in 1950, and they wed in February, 1952. Through two decades of marriage, Helen and Gene produced three children, Gene, in 1952, Douglas, in 1956, and Randolph, in 1960, relocating to their first house in Rockland County, NY in 1959. Helen’s strength of character, generosity, and unimpeachable sense of conviction were admired by virtually everyone who ever knew her. While raising three young boys, Helen also worked full-time. She served the community for years as a Republican Party Committeeman. Her tenure as a secretary and administrative assistant in the Clarkstown School District spanned three decades of recognized excellence. After earning her Real Estate Broker license she worked at Palisades Gardens for 13 years. Upon her retirement she moved to DeLeon Springs, FL where other sisters and their families had already relocated. She was extremely proud of her lovely home on a beautiful wooded plot near DeLand, and was never happier than when her spare bedrooms were filled by visiting family and friends. A woman of great spiritual faith, Helen was raised as a Greek Rite Ukrainian Catholic and eventually settled into the Roman Catholic denomination in her early Yonkers days. Her faith and beliefs were pure, constant, and instinctive. The impact Helen had on her three boys, extended family, and those with whom she interacted in ordinary life was powerful. She was not somebody one ever forgot after meeting her. Declining health necessitated she move to South Florida near her two sons, Douglas and Gene, where her ongoing care could be more easily and lovingly provided. When she could no longer manage with just routine care, she moved into a wonderful assisted living home in Coconut Creek, FL, and finally into nursing care next door. Her health took a sharp turn for the worse shortly before her passing. Surrounded by family, her final days were peaceful and painless. Helen is survived by her three children: Gene Donney and Douglas Donney both of Boca Raton, FL, Randolph Donney, of Maplewood, NJ, daughters-in-law Carla, Diane, and Susan respectively, and nine grandchildren. The last of the “Krupa girls” to leave this world, she was predeceased by Mary, Doris, Rose, Anne, Catherine, Jean, and Hope. The family will receive visitors on Sunday, October 12, from 2:00 to 6:00 at Babione-Dignity Funeral Home in West Boca Raton. Funeral mass will be held 10:00 AM, Monday, October 13, at St. John the Evangelist Church on Yamato Rd. in Boca Raton. Her memory will always be with us, and honored.