Dona (Dirks) Engle

Dona Lee (Dirks) Engle, 63, of Sioux City died Sunday, Sept. 10, 2006, at a Sioux City hospital following a courageous battle with cancer.

Services will be 10 a.m. Wednesday at Grace Lutheran Church, 1430 Seventh Ave. S.E., in Le Mars, Iowa, with the Rev. Larry Fett officiating. Burial will be in Resthaven Memory Gardens. Visitation will be 3 to 8 p.m. today, with the family present 6 to 8 p.m. and a prayer service at 7 p.m. with Neil Peck, chaplain at the Abu Bekr Shrine, officiating, all at Meyer Brothers Colonial Chapel in Sioux City. Condolences may be sent online to www.meyerbroschapels.com.

Dona Lee was born July 31, 1943, in Le Mars, Iowa, to Howard W. and Arlene (Hutton) Dirks. Howard died in France during World War II. Arlene married Dale Schulz. She was baptized at St. John's Lutheran Church in Craig, Iowa in August 1943. She was confirmed at Grace Lutheran Church in Le Mars in 1957. She attended Alton (Iowa) Public School and was a 1961 graduate of Floyd Valley Community School in Alton. She attended the A.I.B. Business School in Des Moines.

She married Bruce Engle on June 12, 1974, in Elk Point, S.D. She was employed with John Hancock Farm Loans in their Sioux City and Spokane, Wash. offices until their closing. She was currently a bookkeeper for the Abu Bekr Shrine office in Sioux City.

Survivors include her husband, Bruce; his children, Deborah (Dan) LaFleur of Jefferson, S.D., Joel (Beth) Engle of Sioux City, Tracy (Jim) Melvin of Cheyenne, Wyo., Patrick (Elizabeth) Engle of Sioux City and Mikolene Engle of South Sioux City; 11 grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; her parents, Dale and Arlene Schulz of Le Mars, Iowa; a sister, LaRae (Randall) Toel of Le Mars; his niece and godchild, Carmen (Aaron) McNaughton and their daughter, Lilly; her aunts and uncles, Reva Albright, Myrna Howard, Pearl (Albert) Eilers, Carlyle (Ihlo) Dirks, Della (Brad) Busch, Charlene Trentham, LaVon Schriner, Eugene (Cece) Hutton, Nelson Hutton Jr., (Carol) Hutton, Coralie Vande Mheen, Marlin (Joyce) Hutton and Roberta (Chuck) Williams; and numerous cousins.

She was preceded in death by her birth father, Howard W. Dirks; three uncles, Darrel Dirks, Myron Hutton and Harold Schulz; and two aunts, Mildred Burleson and Barbara Eye.

Pallbearers will be Patrick Engle, Joel Engle, Dan LaFleur, Aaron McNaughton, Norm Kronick and Dick Lindblom.

The family suggests memorials to Hospice of Siouxland.