Donna C. Tuttle
Published 6:35 am Tuesday, September 12, 2023
Funeral services for Donna C. Tuttle will be at 11:00 AM on Monday, September 18, 2023, at Bonnerup Funeral & Cremation Services in Albert Lea. Visitation will take place one hour prior to the service. Burial will be at Sunset Rest Cemetery in Northwood, IA. Donna’s death occurred on Wednesday, September 6, 2023, at Alive Hospice in Nashville, TN. She was 86 years of age.
Donna was born April 4, 1937 in Mason City, IA. She graduated as valedictorian of her class at Northwood High School in 1955, and went on to earn a Bachelor of Science degree from Iowa State University at Ames in 1958. She taught for three years, and then was a stay-at-home mom when children were born. In 1970, she started and directed the first Homemaker-Home Health Aide Service in Worth County; then later worked for the Iowa Department of Public Health as a field consultant to home health agencies in northwest Iowa. She served as an aftercare grief facilitator for the Hogan-Bremer Colonial Chapel funeral homes in north central Iowa. The final years of her working career were as a nursing home social worker at Wells, MN.
The loves of Donna’s life were: her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ; her family, which grew to embrace two children and six grand-children; and opportunities to teach or help others accomplish their goals and become all they were created to be. She was naturally gifted to teach and to counsel, and presented many seminars locally in IA and MN as well as on mission outreaches to Denmark, Poland, and Latvia.
Donna married Richard Tuttle at Northwood, Iowa on December 20, 1958. They were blessed to celebrate 64 anniversaries together. Together they touched many lives with prayer ministry of deliverance and inner healing. Donna also enjoyed bicycling the Minnesota bike trails with her husband, reading, knitting and needlework, and making lefse, fudge, or rhubarb jam with the grandchildren. Other favorites were their travels in the U.S. and to Alaska, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, France, Italy, and Switzerland.
Donna is survived by her husband, Richard; her children, Randall (Sheila) Tuttle of Dallas, TX, and Rochelle (John) Reding of Old Hickory, TN; grandchildren, Pierce and Paige Tuttle, and lan, Sean, Anna, and Megan Reding; spiritual daughter, Yolanda Martinez of McKinleyville, CA; sister, Janet (Roger) Dahlby. She was preceded in death by her parents, Donald and Cleo (Juhl) Gullickson, and a sister, Anne Cooper.