Donna Mae Tymesen

Donna Mae Tymesen (Braun), 76, of Winona, Minn., departed this earth to be with her Heavenly Father on June 4, at Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center.
Donna was born in Winona on Sept. 15, 1939, the first child of Nick and Mabel Braun (Rupprecht). She graduated from Winona Senior High School in 1957, and attended the College of Medical Technology in pursuit of a medical technician's degree, which she attained in 1959. With that degree she became a medical and x-ray technician, embarking on the first of many journeys she would experience in her lifetime. With a team of doctors and other technicians, she went to West Virginia, where they offered x-rays to people in Appalachia who had previously had limited access to doctors. Her time in West Virginia gave her a taste of the world outside of Minnesota, and she spoke often of the people and culture there that she encountered.

After returning from West Virginia, Donna and a girl friend rented a farm house in Baldwin, Wis., where she met Eldert James Tymesen of Hammond, Wis., at a party they threw one Saturday night. She married him on Feb. 24, 1962.

Donna is best remembered as a woman who wore many hats. Her entrepreneurial spirit and love of clothing manifested themselves in a clothing shop on Hammond's Main Street, Donna's, where she occasionally situated her daughter in the window to model finished patterns. She later lent her capable hands and gift for good recipes to the kitchen at The Coachman supper club in Baldwin, Wis. One of her fondest memories is of adapting and serving her grandmother Lucy Leuhmann's chicken wing recipe for hundreds of Coachman patrons.

For a few years in Hammond, Donna also drove a school bus for St. Croix Central, carting rowdy baseball players to and from away games.

She was an engaged member of Hammond's Card Club and made many friends who would remain close throughout her life. In Garden Club, Donna designed horticulture plantings for community beautification.

Her interest in service and bringing people together extended internationally, as well. After hosting an exchange student from Guatemala for two years in the early 1980s, Donna offered her time as a volunteer to the program, traveling to Guatemala to interview students looking for placement with families in the United States.

Following the death of her husband in 1984, Donna went back to college as a grandmother to become certified as a Chemical Dependency Family Counselor. From 1987 until her retirement in 2007, she worked with young people and families struggling with addictions both chemical and behavioral. She started in the St. Croix Valley, later moving to Iowa and back to Winona, where she spent the remainder of her career at the Hiawatha Valley Mental Health Center.

Her family and friends remember how much she loved to travel. When granddaughter Tana was young, Donna and good friend Lorraine Johnson took her on many road trips throughout the Midwest, visiting tulip festivals in Iowa, cherry festivals in Door County, Wis., and touring the childhood homes of Mark Twain in Missouri and Laura Ingalls Wilder in Minnesota. She also visited her in New York City and together they climbed the stairs to the top of the Statue of Liberty.

Donna and Lorraine took granddaughter Tarra to California, stopping to see the Grand Canyon, and the Continental Divide. Tarra and Derek remember with fondness and laughter many family trips to Hawaii, where Grams pushed her limits hiking up the sides of mountains, and navigating the bamboo forest.

If there was an adventure to be had, Donna was in. She loved to work in her garden and on embroidery, and helping family in Lewiston shuck, clean and freeze sweet corn. She thoroughly enjoyed her time as a member of the Goodview Trinity Church senior choir, spent time with the Winona Senior Friendship Center, and shared in Red Hat Society events with close friends Char and Sheri. Recently, she had begun spending her winters in Yuma, Ariz., with traveling companion Ken Feine.

Donna was preceded in death by her parents, brother Lyle, and husband Eldie. She is survived by her son Troy and his wife Jan, of Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, daughter Nicole of Sarasota, Fla., and grandchildren Tana, of New York City; Tarra, Derek and Nicole, of Coeur d'Alene; and Blade, of Albuquerque, N.M.; and many aunts, cousins and nieces in the area.
A service will be held at Hoff Celebration of Life Center in Winona, Minn., on Wednesday, June 8 at 4 p.m., dinner immediately following. Internment will occur in Hammond, Wis., on a later date.
Online remembrances can be offered at Hofffuneral.com