DONNA VAN BUREN obituary

NASHVILLE - The Rev. Donna Lou Van Buren, 69, a missionary with the United Methodist Church, died at a hospital in the Philippines on Sunday, May 9, 2004, after a long illness.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at the Scarritt-Bennett Center's Wightman Chapel in Nashville. A reception will follow immediately after the service.

Donna Lou was born in Olympia, Wash., on May 21, 1934, to the Rev. Harold and Dorothy Nelson. The family moved to Chinook in 1945. She attended school in Chinook and Havre and graduated from Havre High School in 1952. She graduated from Whittier College in Whittier, Calif., in 1956.

Donna Lou was an ordained elder and full member of the East Ohio Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, where she served as pastor, counselor, chaplain, educator and missionary. She was serving as registrar and professor at Union Theological Seminary in Dar Marinas, Cavite, Philippines, which awarded her an honorary doctor of divinity degree five days before her death.

Donna Lou was preceded in death by her parents.

Survivors include her children, Mark (Shari), Lisa and her partner, Sue, Randy (Lisa) and Gene (Marie); sisters, Dorelda Stevens of Havre and Muriel Berger of Riverside, Calif .; five grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews.

Memorials may be made to the Rev. Donna Lou Van Buren Memorial Scholarship Fund for Union Theological Seminary. Contributions are tax deductible.