Ladonna M. Heckel

LaDonna M. Heckel passed away on Friday, February 17. She was born in southern California to William E. and Carrie J. (Sandall) Smith on New Years Eve in 1928. She grew up in Covina and attended Mt. San Antonio College and Throns Business College. One year in her twenties, while vacationing in Hawaii with friends, she met M. Robert Heckel, then on leave from the Navy. After a long-distance courtship between southern California and Bobs home of suburban Philadelphia, they married in 1955. They first lived in Gettysburg while Bob attended college and daughter Nancy was born, then moved to Gladwyne, Pennsylvania where they welcomed daughter Pat and son Bob Jr. While in Gladwyne they began a summer tradition of vacationing in Ocean City, New Jersey, which continues today. Toledo became the familys home in 1966, as they were some of the first residents of the Country Squire Estates neighborhood in West Toledo, near Reynolds Corners. Donna became active in the neighborhood and at nearby Hawkins Elementary, where she met several lifelong friends. Donna was a devoted friend and neighbor. In addition to visiting with and helping out with her friends and neighbors in Toledo, she kept in regular contact with her best friends back in California. In later years, she served as an unofficial social secretary for her group of gal pals in West Toledo, coordinating regular lunch visits and shopping jaunts. She loved gardening and in summer months could often be found outside planting, weeding, trimming, watering, and tending to her garden and potted petunias. For several years she volunteered at Toledo Botanical Gardens. Donna loved feeding the birds and squirrels in her yard and watching the animals from her own window on wildlife. She was also a fan of word searches, card games, and coloring books (or painting, as she liked to call it). She could often be found watching television from her programs, or soap operas, to Magnum P.I. and NCIS. Westerns were her favorite films and a cardboard cutout of John Wayne lived in her garage. Winter holidays were a favorite time of year - she would bake brownies and make candies to share with family, friends, and neighbors. For many years, she directed a neighborhood holiday decoration campaign of bright red ribbons on each front door. The holidays continued through New Years Eve, also Donnas birthday. Donna is survived by her children, Nan (David) Nicholson, Pat (Mike) Smith, and Bob (Brenda) Heckel and three grandchildren, Kelly McGilvery, Jeff Stegeman, and Brad Smith. She was preceded in death by her husband M. Robert Heckel and her parents Carrie J. Smith and William E. Smith. To honor Donnas wishes, there will be no visitation.