Donna Berniece Sobczak, 76, lost her life to complications from pancreatic cancer, and entered into eternal life on June 3, 2024 at Methodist North Hospital, with her husband and son at her side. In the final hour of her life, her four sisters bid their farewell to their beloved sister from Illinois and Florida over Facetime, singing Amazing Grace to her the same way she sang with them to their mother just before her passing 18 years earlier. She also received phone calls from the people closest to her in her life, saying their goodbyes.
Donna was born on January 8, 1948 in Mt. Sterling, IL. She was the daughter of Berniece Moreland Bowen and Orville Bowen. She was preceded in death by her brothers Larry and Bryce and her sister Judy Gargus.
She is survived by her Husband of 54 years, Anthony Sobczak, her son Sean Sobczak and his wife, Jennifer Moore of Los Angeles, CA. She is also survived by her sisters Marylin (Patrick) Weitzel of Peoria, IL, Carol (Wayne) Otten of Peoria, IL, Marsha (David) Tindell of Coral Springs, FL, Randi (Tim) Moody of North Pekin, IL, and Sister-in-law, Bonnie (Thomas) Rechlicz. She is further survived by other relatives and many, many friends.
She was a devoted wife and stay-at-home Mom, and was an “adopted mother” to her “Pupcake” Daisy May, as well as countless family friends she met throughout her life.
She had a deep love for music, having been raised in a musical family, and grew up singing six-part harmonies with her sisters and their multi-instrumentalist father. This gave her a life-long love of singing, which lead to her auditioning for the Wolf River Singers, a semi-professional choral group in Memphis TN, who she sang with for five years.
At age 70, Donna learned to play the Ukulele and her interest in the instrument lead to her involvement with the Memphis Ukulele Flash Mob and the Hawaiian band, Hawaii North 40, where she was the lead singer. Playing ukulele with this group was something she absolutely loved and she so enjoyed knowing and playing with all the members of this group, especially her Hawaiian sister, Amelia. She also played with the Silver Strings at the Bartlett Senior Center.
She attended the Burning Man art festival in 2006, as part of the support team for her son’s large scale art project.
In her later years, she was a Red Hatter and belonged to the Royal Mixed Nuts, and was active at the Bartlett Senior Center, as a member of the Scrabble Sisters and often attending the Creative Aging Performances.
She’s a real people person and loved turning strangers into friends everywhere she went, was loved by all she met, and was a ray of light in every room.
A procession on Wednesday June 12 at 11:30 to follow the hearse to a visitation and mass at the Church of the Nativity.
