Donna Belle Reimer

Donna B Nunnenkamp Reimer

On a cold late autumn day, November 10, 1930, Donna Belle was born to Ernest and Ruth Bock Nunnenkamp in their house in Deshler, Nebraska. She was the fourth of six children.

She went home to heaven and eternal life with her redeemer Jesus Christ on August 17, 2025, at the age of 94.

Her first years were spent in Deshler where her dad worked at the largest broom-making factory in the world. When Donna was four years old, the family moved to Pine Bush, New York, where an uncle and family lived. Then to Atco, New Jersey, where another uncle lived. Her dad was able to keep working during the depression years and the dust bowl. Donna began school in Atco. She also became the neighborhood champion marble player. Seeing the White House and the ocean at Atlantic City at seven years of age made a big impression.

Another move in 1938 to Johnson, Nebraska, and two years later to Battle Creek, Nebraska. Moved again in 1943 to Grand Prairie, Texas, followed a year later to Colorado Springs, Colorado, where another uncle had a broom shop, and finally to Valley Center, Kansas, in 1944 where Donna finished eighth through twelfth grade. She graduated valedictorian of her class in 1949. She always enjoyed learning - especially math and a love of reading. She nearly always won scrabble games, still able to play within weeks of passing.

Donna and a girlfriend rented a small apartment in Wichita where she worked in bookkeeping at Montgomery Ward. Later that fall, she met Charles Reimer on a blind date, whom she married on October 22, 1950 at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Wichita.

Attending church while growing up was always important for her family, and Donna liked memorizing Bible verses. In her mid-thirties, she began daily Bible reading and seeing the need to seek God and ask for His wisdom, strength and guidance each day. Charles and Donna took their five children to church and encouraged understanding of God’s eternal plan of salvation for their lives.

In 1956 they began building a house four miles from Valley Center for their family. They lived in the basement while working on the upstairs. Donna / Mom was very industrious and a hard worker. After each load in the wringer washer in the basement, she would carry a bushel basket of wet clothes upstairs to hang out to dry and then spend her day baking bread, cookies, pies and mending. During these years, she gardened and canned several hundred quarts of vegetables and fruit every year. An outing she always looked forward to each summer was going to the peach orchards south of Wichita and picking bushels of peaches to can for the winter. Mom was very frugal and creative, often sacrificing much to provide for her family. She sewed clothes for us and always made sure we had what we needed. One time, for our school lunches, she had been able to buy a box of large glazed donuts from a bakery shop in North Wichita. As she packed them carefully, mom cut a wedge out of each donut for herself to enjoy after we went to school!

She did house cleaning and babysitting to help with finances. In 1973, she began working at Mid-American Credit Union in Wichita, a job she really enjoyed and called an exciting experience for 17 years. During that time, she trained 64 tellers that worked at bank branches.

One Halloween, while working at the Credit Union, she made a costume to wear to work - she was a Purple Crayon complete with a pointed hat!

Throughout the years, Mom was a faithful letter-writer to her children as they moved away to college, got jobs, etc, and wrote notes to many friends.

Mom’s retirement years were enjoyed and blessed by new grandchildren being born, taking trips with Dad to Montana to visit Debbie, Dan and family, tending their farmland near Walton, family gatherings often at Charlie and Ruth’s, and going to ladies Bible studies.

Her greatest earthly treasure was her family. She felt blessed and proud of each one’s accomplishments. She prayed for her husband and was grateful for a good husband who’s faith encouraged her - they were married for over 73 years. She prayed daily for her children and their spouses, grandchildren and great grand-children, mentioning them by name in the journals she wrote for over 25 years. Relatives, neighbors and friends were also mentioned by name many times in those prayer journals. Mom’s strong faith rested in the words of Philipians 1:21 “For me to live is Christ” (contentment), “and to die is gain” (eternal life because of God’s grace).

Donna was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Charles, sister Mardelle (Delmar) Spoering; brothers Wayne (Georgine) Nunenkamp, Allen (Cecille) Nunnenkamp, Stanley (Nadine) Nunnenkamp and Gary Nunnenkamp; niece Janice Menozzi, nephew Fritz Nunenkamp, niece Cheryl Palmer, nephew Steven Nunnenkamp; in-laws Gus (Berniece) Reimer, Marie Reimer, Doris Reimer, John Reimer and niece Cindy Reimer.

Donna leaves her daughters Debbie (Dan) Kauffman of Kalispell, Montana, Char of Valley Center, DeAnne (John) Hoch of Wilson; sons Charlie (Ruth) of Newton, and Don of Walton; daughter-in-law Sheryl of Newton; ten grandchildren - Joylynn, Joshua, Caleb, Heather, Haylee, Katie, Stuart, Aaron, Jared, and Carson; 15 great-grandchildren - Marissa, Phoenix, Sawyer, Charlotte, Lydia, Gideon, Samantha, Charles James, Alissa, Jones, Gus, Kamerson, Zavier, Jackson Charles and Naomi; sister-in-laws Gladys Reimer and Jeanette Nunnenkamp.

The family would like to thank the staff at Kansas Christian Home and Good Shepherd Hospice for their kindness and care of Donna.

Memorial contributions in Donna's name may be made to Child Evangelism Fellowship or to Special Olympics - Kansas.