DONNA JEAN BUSHEE (maiden name Honsberger) was born in Seattle and grew up in the
Green Lake area. The family moved to the Lynwood area while Donna was still young and
she graduated from Lynwood High School. Shortly after graduation she married Harvey
Bushee. The young family moved in the 1950's to Newport, Washington, where the youngest
daughter was born. Over the years in Newport Donna took on various jobs in addition to
being a homemaker, working as head cook at the Sadie Halstead Elementary School and as a
retail assistant in a local fabric shop. After a move to Spokane Donna began what became a
long and successful career in real estate. At the age of 61 Donna qualified as a massage
therapist and set up an independent practice in Spokane that remained successful for many
years. She continued her real estate business at the same time, so she was very busy keeping
both irons in the fire. In her massage therapy practice Donna embraced alternative healing
methods and worked during the years she was active to broaden the range of healing
modalities she offered to her clients. Her client base remained large during her twenty years
of active practice. After she reached the age at 80 she reduced her practice due to physical
limitations but continued to treat clients for another few years.
Donna was always very involved with family and her time with family members always had
a high priority in her life. Since two of her three children remained local during the course of
her lifetime, as were her two grandchildren until they reached adulthood, spending time with
family remained a touchpoint of her experience. In her later life she shared living space for
several years with her elder daughter, Vickie, and after Vickie became ill Donna was her
primary caretaker until Vickie passed in 2018. Donna also enjoyed and cultivated close
relationships that lasted for decades with several friends in Spokane. She was actively
involved with the growing up of her two grandsons and was a familiar figure in the lives of
her four great-grandchildren.
Donna's life had three main phases. In the years up to her mid-40's her main focus was her
family. From being a city girl in Seattle and Lynwood she became a country girl after the
move to a rural property outside Newport. She adapted to the change with intelligence and
energy, became an avid gardener and canned hundreds of quarts of vegetables and fruits
every year, used her skills as a seamstress to make clothes for the kids, knitted sweaters for
the family, and was a good cook who made the best of whatever she had available at the time.
After the children were older and the move to Spokane happened Donna became a city girl again and made herself into a successful professional in the real estate industry. After twenty-
odd years going full-tilt in that line of work Donna's focus turned to massage therapy and alternative health care. In all three phases her primary motivation was to help others to live better. In that spirit a fitting tribute to her memory would be an act of kindness to carry on
the intentional acts of kindness that formed a hallmark of Donna's approach to life.