Donna Maudette (Buse) Mews, age 62, passed away at Froedtert South Pleasant Prairie Hospital on Wednesday, July 5, 2023 surrounded by her loving family.
Born in Kenosha on October 17, 1960, she was the daughter of the late James and Gena Buse. Donna attended local schools: Hillcrest Elementary, Bullen Jr. High and graduated from Mary D. Bradford High School in 1978. She also earned a Bachelor of Arts in Business and Minor in Art from UW-Parkside.
On February 14, 1997 at First Baptist Church in Kenosha, she was united in marriage to the love of her life, Trae “T.J.” Mews. They were married for a little over 20 years before he passed away from a tragic car accident on June 20, 2017.
She was a member of A & D Biker Ministries in Racine, Wisconsin. Donna was also a board member of the Kenosha Bradford High School Alumni Association, Inc.
Donna once owned an antique finishing and refurbishing business and was employed by McDonalds, Ambrosia, and various other jobs before she started at Gateway Technical College in 1998. She began by transcribing books before she moved into her position as a Divisional Apprentice Associate, helping countless work study students before her retirement in 2013.
She loved traveling with her family and made it her bucket list goal to visit all 50 states. She even travelled to Australia, New Zealand, and China. She loved her pastime of motorcycling and snowmobiling with T.J. Donna also made many trips to Mississippi to visit her family whom she loved dearly. For many years, Donna volunteered with fellow local and statewide members of Job’s Daughters Bethel 30, 69 and 79. She loved the arts, pottery, painting, crafting, making jewelry and glass blowing. She would try making and doing just about anything, and she could never be told “No”…because she would do it anyway! Donna’s health challenges certainly did not stop her from all her adventures.
Donna loved spending time with family and friends and enjoyed yearly traditions of making a million cookies with her girlfriends, which Ben had the pleasure of delivering at Christmas time. She always held a Friendsgiving with whomever did not have a place to go. Donna shaped the lives of three exchange students and was affectionately know as “My American Mom” by Jörg from Germany. She also housed three Kenosha Kingfish baseball players during the summers of 2015-2017. Donna will be dearly missed by all of her lunch dates that she had with friends.
She will be sadly missed by her son, Benjamin (Hailey) Mews; her grandson, Greyson; 5 fur babies: Sassy, Chevy, Bubba, Riley, and Vader; her brother-in-law, Troy (Kris) Mews and their children, Alyse and Lauren Mews; her sister-in-law, Tracey Mews; her nephew, Jake Mussonelli and many cousins, aunts, uncles and friends.
Along with her parents and husband, Donna was preceded in death by her maternal grandparents, Joe and Donny Tate of Greenweed Springs, MS, and her paternal grandparents, Burl Benjamin and Maude Buse, of Guntown, MS.
Memorial Services honoring Donna’s life will be held on Saturday, July 22, 2023 at 12:00PM at the Piasecki Funeral Home.
A gathering of relatives and friends will be held at the funeral home on Saturday, July 22 from 10:00AM until the time of the service.
In lieu of flowers, the family suggests that memorial remembrances be made to the A & D Biker Ministries, PO Box 080962, Racine, WI 53408.
Donna loved her Ben.