Denise LaBrunerie

Denise LaBrunerie, born July 7, 1963 to Doris Wickham (deceased 1988) and Walker LaBrunerie (deceased 2025) died peacefully at home in Warrensburg, Missouri on August 31, 2026, surrounded in her final days by family, friends, and caregivers who loved her very much.

From the beginning, Denise's family knew that she experienced the world differently. As a small child, she was slower to reach certain milestones and experienced emotions with intensity. Eventually, her parents learned that Denise had a rare chromosomal abnormality that affected her development.

At a time when children with intellectual disabilities were often separated from their families and communities, Denise's mother Doris was determined that Denise would have a different life. She became Denise's fiercest advocate, even returning to graduate school to better understand and advocate. She found programs that allowed Denise to participate in the same schools as her two older sisters, Claire LaBrunerie and Suzanne LaBrunerie (deceased 2020), ride the bus with them, spend at least part of her school day in mainstream classrooms, attend field trips, and ultimately graduate alongside the community in which she had grown up.

Those early years, particularly while her mother was alive, were among the happiest of Denise's life. She did extra-curriculars with her sisters, such as horseback riding, piano, and ice skating -- and led her own bowling league where she earned a trophy that was talked about for years. Denise also traveled extensively with her family and developed the extraordinary memory for people and places that remained one of her defining characteristics throughout her life.

Denise never forgot someone who had been kind to her. As she got older, a telephone conversation with Denise could become a roll call of the people she loved: Where is Anita? How is Aparna? Where is Dad? Nick? Her nieces? A former caregiver? A friend she had not seen in years? People who might have assumed they had passed briefly through Denise's life could discover, decades later, that Denise still remembered them. She loved people intensely. In recent years, Denise lived in her own home with round-the-clock support from caregivers with Abilities LLC. They became an important part of her world, and many came to love her deeply.

She also continued her love of music and the movies of her childhood, especially The Sound of Music. As an adult she became an enthusiastic Disney fan, with a particular affection for Peter Pan -- along with, inexplicably, “Chucky” from the horror film series. Denise loved to travel, a pleasure that began with the many trips her parents took their children on through Europe. Decades later she could still talk about the house in Paris where the family spent a summer and the mysterious cave and stream in its backyard. In later years, trips to Disney became especially treasured adventures.

Food was another great pleasure. Denise loved a good meal and took considerable interest in planning the next one. But dinner out was never simply about dinner. It meant time with someone she loved, and that was what Denise valued most. Birthdays and holidays were major events in Denise's calendar. No sooner had one celebration ended than she wanted to know who was coming to see her for the next one.

Her final illness came fast. After a period of declining health, Denise was diagnosed with advanced, inoperable stomach cancer just a few weeks before her death. The decisions to be made were unambiguous. She was fortunate to be able to remain at her home under hospice care. During those final weeks, family members, old friends, caregivers and others who had known Denise across the many chapters of her life came to see her and surround her with affection. It was a beautiful answer to the question Denise had spent a lifetime asking – namely, “who is coming to see me?”

Denise's life was a good reminder of something her mother understood more than sixty years ago, when the world was not always welcoming to a child like her: a person with an intellectual disability does not have a lesser need for a full life. Denise formed profound attachments and remembered kindness for decades. She wanted to belong, to be included, to have something to look forward to, to know that the people we love and trust love us in return.

Denise is survived by her sister Claire LaBrunerie, Claire’s four daughters (Sabine, Simone, Elodie and Ines) and a host of first cousins across the country.

A celebration of Denise's life is being planned for a later date. In lieu of flowers or similar tributes, we ask that people who were touched by Denise or her story consider a donation to a charity of their choice in her memory.