Donna Lee (Hemphill) Smith

Donna Lea Smith, 93, of Mt. Pleasant, formerly of Burlington and Louisa County communities, died Monday, October 5, 2020 at the Henry County Health Center in Mt. Pleasant.

The funeral service for Mrs. Smith will be 1:00 PM on Monday, October 12 at the Kimzey Funeral Home in Mt. Pleasant. The Reverend Michael Johnson, Pastor, Mt. Pleasant Church of the Open Bible, will officiate. Burial will be in the Aspen Grove Cemetery, Burlington. The family will receive friends from 12 Noon to 1 PM on Monday.  Attendees are asked to wear masks and socially distance themselves as they are able. The funeral service will be livestreamed on the funeral home Facebook page (KImzey Funeral Home) for those unable to attend in person.

Memorials may be directed to the Iowa Commission for the Blind.

Online condolences may be left at www.kimzeyfuneralhome.com

Mrs. Smith, the former Donna Lea Hemphill, was born February 19, 1927 in Newport, Louisa Co., Iowa. She was the daughter of Horace Harvey and Gladys Barbetta (Dustman) Hemphill. She attended grade school in Newport School and graduated from Wapello High School in 1945. Donna married John Brass on February 19, 1949 at Trinity Lutheran Church in Burlington. They later divorced. She married Harry Boughton and later divorced. She then married Troy Smith in Ft. Madison in 1979. The couple later divorced.

While raising her children, Donna took in laundry and babysat other children. As her children got older, she worked outside of the home. She worked at Midwest Biscuit and AntennaCraft, both in West Burlington and the Teapot Restaurant in Mediapolis. For a number of years, Donna was a Cosmetician at the former Osco Drug in downtown Burlington. Donna later moved to Florida where she was employed at the Good Samaritan Health Care Center in her community. She returned to Iowa and made her home in Burlington before moving to live with her daughter in Mt. Pleasant.

While she lived in Burlington, she was a member of the Golden Oldies and served as the Secretary for the Autumn Heights Resident Council. In her spare time, Donna was very gifted in her talent in embroidery and in the 1970’s specialized in Swedish Embroidery.

Those thankful for sharing in Donna’s life include her daughter Charlene Nichols of Mt. Pleasant; a brother and his wife, Dennis and Sandy Hemphill of Charlestown, RI; a sister-in-law, Louise Hemphill of West Burlington; a grandson, Adam Siegel and several step grandchildren, step great-grandchildren and their families.

Donna’s parents, former husbands, 2 sons – Dan Brass and Darrell Brass, a brother, Jerry Hemphill, a sister, Marjorie Brown Griffin, a brother in infancy, a son-in-law, Gerald Nichols and a grandson, Mark Brass, precede her in death.

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