Memorial Services: Tuesday, at 6:00 p.m. at Stevenson & Sons Funeral Home in Miles City
Interment: A private graveside service will be performed, the following day, prior to interment in the Custer County Cemetery
Helen Donna Witcher, age 88, mother of Jack Witcher and Kay Sanders, passed away May 1, 2005 in Hospice Care at Holy Rosary Medical Center in Miles City.
Donna was born May 31, 1916 in Minneapolis, MN, the daughter of Irish-Canadian parents, Simon (Sam) J. Coughlin and Catherine (Kate) I. Currier-Coughlin. Her father, railroad telegrapher turned semi-pro baseball manager, died five months before she was born and her mother began working as a domestic to support the family. During those early years, Donna lived with various family members and also resided, for 2 years, in the care of the nuns at the Ursuline Convent in Miles City while her mother worked for families that had no accommodations for another child.
When Donna was 13 years old her mother remarried and they lived near Mildred, MT where she attended high school. During a visit to her sister in Broadus, MT, she met and fell in love with John Witcher, a Volborg-area rancher and pro-rodeo cowboy. They eloped in the summer of 1933 and made their home, for the following thirty years, on the Bobcat Creek homestead that Mr. Witcher's grandfather (a Spanish-American War Veteran) had staked at the turn of the century. Many difficult years of struggle with the outdoor elements, the economy, and hard physical ranch labor followed for the couple while they lived (with no modem amenities) in the original, one-room, log house.
Three children were born to this union: James Edward, John F., Jr. (Jack), and Katherine I. (Kay). When both sons were in high school, Donna and her children made their temporary home in Miles City where she worked at the Crossroads Inn to support their "town"; expenses while her husband continued to ranch. Living in Miles City became permanent when Donna was employed as bookkeeper for the local Gambles Store late in the 1950's. John retired from ranching in the mid-sixties and joined her to live in town until his death in 1972. She ended her work career in 1978, after several years of managing the Miles City Town and Country Club kitchen. Early in the 1990's Donna made her home with family at the ranch near Kinsey then moved to the Eagles Manor in 1996. During her nearly three decades of retirement Donna was busy cooking for family, running errands, and helping with the care and nurture of grandchildren who adore her.
Surviving Donna Witcher are her grateful and loving children; son, Jack, and daughter Kay and her husband Joe Sanders each of Kinsey Route, Miles City. Her son Jim's children Jeff Witcher of Kermit, TX and Donna Lynn (Aubrey) Spear of Lubbock, TX; Jack's children, Cindy (Tommy) Smith of Hobbs, NM, Kelly Witcher of Orlando, FL and Chris (Deana) Witcher of Billings, MT; and Kay's daughter, Jaimi (Shane) Balsam of Powderville, MT. Donna's great-grandchildren will number 13, with an addition due in early July, and she has one great-great grandson. Dearly loved nieces and nephews and their families, of both the Coughlin and Witcher branches, are listed as those who also survive.
Preceding her in death were her husband, her son Jim (in 1967 at age 29), her parents, her brothers - John J. and Clair Coughlin, and sisters - Beatrice Junge and Gladys Coughlin.
Service Schedule
Service Schedule
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