Donna Jean Brown (Kearins)

Monday, June 4, 2018 12:39 pm

Garden boutiques, quilter’s emporiums and artist studios lost a faithful patron May 18, 2018. Donna Jean Brown (Kearins), passed away peacefully surrounded by friends and family in Decorah, after her brief battle with lung cancer. A Celebration of of Life for Donna is Saturday, July 14, from 1 to 3 p.m, at the Tap Room at the Decorah Winneshiek Hotel.

Donna never passed a flower she didn’t like; a quilt she didn’t admire; nor an opportunity to voice her thoughts.

Born Aug. 28, 1939, in Oak Park, Ill., Donna was the youngest of four children and raised in an Irish neighborhood on Chicago’s west side before aspiring to the Chicago Academy of Fine Arts and the University of Illinois. She was introduced to Harrison John (“Dick”) Brown by her older brother Johnny at a dance. After a short courtship the two married Jan. 28, 1961, in Chicago. While raising four wonderful children, she founded the Chicago art gallery “The Art Object” and led the Florida Key’s advertising division for the Miami Herald while living in Homestead Florida. In the early ‘90s Donna, husband Dick and youngest son Johnny moved back to the area of their beloved summer home in Northeast Iowa. Combining a lifelong passion for art and gardening, most of her recent artworks of gardening were celebrated at art fairs and art galleries throughout the state of Iowa. Donna was socially active with the local quilting and gardening clubs.

Donna is survived by her husband; sister, Kay Thuerk (Chicago, Ill.), and children; Julie (Stuttgart, Germany), Kent (Denver, Colo.), Patrick (Seattle, Wash.) and Harrison “Johnny” (Prior Lake, Minn.), and 10 grandchildren.

She was preceded in death by her brother, Johnny (Madrid, Spain), sister, Nancy (San Francisco, Calif.), her mother, Kathleen Marie Kearins (Walsh), and her father, F. Gannon Kearins (Chicago, Ill.).