Donna Downey

Donna L Downey, 82 of Rutherfordton, passed from this life on Wednesday September 21, 2022, at Hospice House Forest City after a short battle with Leukemia. Donnetta, her birth name, was the fourth of five children born to Paul and Orbia Bays Shepherd in Webbville, KY, on Wednesday September 4, 1940. She was raised in Pike County Ohio after her parents relocated there. She graduated from Piketon High School in 1958 and received her Nursing Diploma from the Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in 1961. She married Charles R. Downey on November 6, 1964, and had 3 children. The family moved to Medina County Ohio in the mid 1970’s and then Rutherford County North Carolina in 1988. Donna was a Registered Nurse for 43 years retiring in 2004 from Rutherford Hospital. She loved to read and study her Bible, attend church services, spend time with family, write fictional and imaginative short stories and wrote several unpublished novels.  She also loved drawing, painting, making picture albums and scrap books, collecting antiques, camping, and spending time with her 4-legged miniature schnauzer, Sadie.

Donna obeyed the Gospel and was baptized into Christ at 19 years old for the remission of hers sins according to Acts 2:38. She was a lifelong member of the church of Christ attending faithfully at the Rutherford and Shelby churches of Christ until her declining health from her diseases.  Complications from those diseases and oncology treatments compounded by the ongoing pandemic rendered her to mostly being shut in for the last two plus years. Even then, she continued to faithfully worship God by viewing worship services online. 

In addition to her parents, she was preceded in death by her husband, Charles Downey, her daughter Jane Leaver, her brother Proctor Shepherd, and her sisters, Janet Burgett and Paula Williams.

Those left to cherish her memory are sons, Charles (Chuck) Downey and wife Stephanie, Darrin Downey and wife, Marty. One brother Jack (Nancy) Shepherd.  Her Grandchildren, Jamie Leaver, Jordyn Leaver, Haley Brussman and husband Jarrod, Sierra Downey, Cheyenne Downey and Carson Downey as well as numerous nephews and nieces and many others.

A memorial service will be held Saturday at 11 in the Padgett and King Chapel in Forest City with Jamel White and Phil Cochrane officiating. The family will receive friends from 10 until 11 o’clock at Padgett and King before the service. Interment will be at Mound Cemetery in Piketon, Ohio, with a family graveside service.

In lieu of flowers donations can be made to Meals on Wheels, Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Efforts, Inc., In Search of the Lord’s Way and the Gospel Broadcasting Network.

The Padgett and King Mortuary and Crematory is in charge of arrangements.

To send flowers to the family, please visit our floral store.