Donna Kury Maxwell's Obituary
Donna Kury Maxwell
1948-2024
Most of you will say “What? Donna’s dead? Now it all makes sense! I haven’t gotten a single card, letter, or newspaper clipping from her in a long time. Death is the only explanation.” She was known for the thoughtful notes that she sent for everything. She loved sending and receiving mail. If you ever sent her any type of greeting card or note, she saved it. Was your kid briefly mentioned in a newspaper article? Then Donna found it, cut it out, carefully taped the date to it, and made sure you got every single copy she could find. She particularly loved the Standard Examiner. She specifically chose her kitchen table because it was large enough to read two newspapers side by side, one for her and one for her husband, David.
She loved Chapstick. She always had a tube of the classic original flavor Chapstick brand in a holder on her wrist. Sometimes she even had one on each wrist, which you can bet we teased her about. If you needed ANY office supply, including an envelope of any size, stamps, scissors, page protectors, stickers, notepads, tape, or post-its, she was a great resource. All were meticulously organized and categorized. She loved making lists. She even made lists of lists that she needed to make! So, here’s a list of some of her favorite things: chocolate, books, Reader’s Digest, Star Trek (especially Voyager), Brad Paisley, Faith Hill, The Beatles, Elvis, Hawaii, catalog shopping, journal writing, scripture study, walking on the treadmill, organizing things, attending musicals and shows at any theater, and being very early to everything.
You are all still wondering what happened! Well, she had a fairly sharp decline at the end of 2022. We made the difficult decision to place her on hospice care. She was suffering from congestive heart failure and experiencing dementia. She and David were in the midst of selling their home of 42 years, so it was perfect timing for them to move to assisted living. Donna did not like fusses regarding her health, so we kept a lot of her health concerns secret. Even in her extremely frail state, we were afraid she’d yell at us for blabbing that she was sick. She lived a full year longer than we had expected. As the end of 2023 approached, we encouraged her to stick around until 2024 so that dad could claim her one more year on his taxes. She died at 7 am on New Year’s Day. Mom, thanks for waiting!
She has two super fantastic daughters (we aren’t just saying that because we are writing the obit…we are quoting her!), Emily (Andy) Snow and Abby (Dale) Hansen. Donna’s husband of 46 years is David Maxwell. He always made sure that she had what she wanted, even when that meant silly stuff like an extra case of paper towels when they already had three on hand. He spent so much time these last few years caring for her and worrying about her. She would have kicked the bucket much sooner if he hadn’t looked after her so well. There’s also Dwayne. He was a neighbor cat that one day abandoned his family in order to move in with Donna and David. When they moved to assisted living, so did Dwayne.
She also has seven crazy grandchildren: Benjamin, Anna, and Jane Hansen and Nora, Evan, Eric, and Lisa Snow. She has one wonderful little sister, Kathy (Don) Flower of Candler, NC. Her parents, John and Marjorie Kury, her cats Brownie and Beauty, Taffy and Dusty, and her dog Sparky, all passed on many years ago.
She had a testimony of Jesus Christ and she would tell you about it. She loved preparing lessons for Sunday meetings and she was a featured speaker at many Relief Society activities. She was proud to have her writing published in several church and local publications. She and David served as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Boston, Massachusetts in 2006.
We’ll miss her. We wish her well on her adventure to the Delta Quadrant and beyond. Live long and prosper. We’d also like to express a special thank you to Melissa and other staff from Suncrest Hospice that cared for her, and the staff at Abbington Assisted Living.
We’ll be celebrating her life at 2 pm on Saturday, February 24 at Abbington Assisted Living (350 S 100 W, Layton, UT) with the most unconventional funeral ever. Please contact Abby, Emily, or David for details and to RSVP. Hint: There will be chocolate. If you can’t make it, please send us your favorite Donna stories so that we can read them at her funeral. Email them to [email protected]. In lieu of flowers, we are asking that you donate hygiene items to a local shelter. She really loved sunscreen! And don’t forget classic original flavor Chapstick!
Mandatory genealogical information: Born March 24,1948 in Baltimore, MD. She grew up in Asheville, NC. She lived most of her adult life in Syracuse, UT. She died January 1, 2024 in Layton, UT.
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