Blanche Marie Donovan

Blanche Marie Donovan, age 89 years, of Fountain Hills passed away peacefully on Friday, March 10, 2023. She was the daughter of Maurice C. and Mildred M. (Thompson) Thompson. Blanche was born in Delaware County Iowa on Aug. 10, 1933. She was a graduate of Buck Creek Consolidated School and the Cedar Rapids Business College.

Blanche married Dorrance “Doc” Donovan in 1953 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She is survived by her husband; their only child, Pamela (Kurt) Berens and four grandchildren (Donovan, Pauline, Dylan and Nolan); sisters-in-law Patricia Halstead, Elinor Remington, and Elizabeth Dake.

Blanche and her husband lived in Minnesota (Golden Valley and Woodbury) and Florida (Mt. Dora) prior to moving to Arizona in 1996. She was an owner/operator of a Baskin Robbins franchise in St. Paul, Minn.

Blanche was involved in many volunteer organizations, most notably as a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution and a past National Memorial Lady in Arizona. She enjoyed tracing her family’s origins as a genealogist.

A Catholic rite of funeral mass will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 1, 2023, at the Church of the Ascension in Fountain Hills. Interment will occur at the National Cemetery Columbarium in Phoenix, Ariz., at a later date. A luncheon will be served immediately following the funeral mass at Ascension.

In lieu of flowers, the family respectfully requests gifts in memoriam be directed to the St. Vincent DePaul Society in Fountain Hills.