Donalee Schlogel-Hansen went to be with her Lord on 26 March, 2025, at Fieldstone Care Center, in Tumwater, WA, the result of a hard fall suffered on March 5th, 2025. She was born on November 5, 1937 in Chicago, Ilinois, and was the daughter of Joseph and Helen Schlogel. In 1942 she moved to Helenville, WI. where her father had purchased a small farm. During her primary school days, Donalee attended a one room school just a few miles from her home. During summer and winter, she rode her beloved horse “Flash” to and from school and housed him in a neighbor’s barn during school hours. In the frigid Wisconsin winters, she would ride bareback to help stay warm. Donalee claims to have acted as the mail man, delivering the neighbors’ mail down long snow-covered driveways on horseback where no cars or farm trucks could travel.
In her freshman year of high school, the Schlogel family moved to Ft. Atkinson, Wisconsin, where Donalee enrolled in Ft. Atkinson High School. She played in the high school marching band and sang in the choir. She was blessed with a beautiful singing voice and earned a Starred First in the statewide high school music competition. Donalee graduated from Ft. Atkinson High School in 1955. During her sophomore year in high school, she met Vernon Hansen at a roller-skating rink in Fort, where he was the floor manager. He was a senior at Whitewater City High, a town 10 miles from Fort. Donalee was a beginning skater, so when she fell, Vernon (whom she nick-named “Whitey,” because of his light blond hair and because she didn’t like the name (“Vernon”) quickly skated over to her side and helped her back on her feet. And the rest is history!!
During their on and off again 4-year courtship, Donalee accompanied Whitey and his two sisters, Ellen and Esther, to Chetek, WI to a Christian Summer Camp, where she accepted the Lord as her Lord and Savior. During intermission at the Prom at Whitewater High School on June 2nd, 1955, Whitey proposed to Donalee in the front seat of his Ford convertible, and surprisingly she said “yes”! Exactly one year later (no sooner according to her father) Whitey and Donalee were married in the English Lutheran Church in Whitewater, WI. at 7 PM on June 2, 1956!
In October 1961, the Wisconsin National Guard, 32nd Division, a unit in which Whitey was a 2nd Lieutenant, was deployed to Ft Lewis, Washington in response to the Berlin crisis. Over the Christmas holiday, Donalee and their 2 yr old twins joined Whitey at Ft. Lewis. Two years later the family rotated to Berlin, Germany, where they spent the next two years. Donalee worked as a dental assistant at the Military Dental Facility, and did volunteer Red Cross work at the Army Hospital. She was able to travel to other Western European Cities after driving the 110 miles through East Germany, an experience not many civilians are afforded. It allowed them to visit Whiteys Danish relatives and to learn much of their history.
Living in Izmir, Turkey for two years, because of Whiteys NATO assignment, gave Donalee the opportunity to visit many ancient ruins, to include the sites of all Seven Churches of the Revelation. A two week visit to the Holy Land was surely a highlight of the NATO assignment for her.
As a member of Grace Baptist Church in Rochester, Washington, upon retirement, Donalee shared her gift of music by singing many Sunday morning solos, as well as being part of a traveling Gospel quartet. She also organized a group of teenage military dependents to form a gospel singing ensemble and was a counselor for The Benning Hills Baptist Church youth group in Columbus, Georgia.
A celebration of life will be held on Sunday, April 27, 2025, at 1 PM, at the Grace Baptist Church in Rochester, Washington 98530.
