Donna Marie (Gamble) Kohut
January 6, 1941 - January 1, 2026
Donna passed away suddenly at her home in Carman, Manitoba, on the afternoon of New Year’s Day, after spending Christmas with her family. Her 85th birthday would have been on January 6th.
Donna was very proud to be from Hallock, Minnesota. She was born and raised there, graduated from high school there in 1959, and remained in close touch with her classmates her entire life. After some 40 years as a landed immigrant in Canada, she became a dual Canadian-American citizen. She attended nursing school in Minneapolis for a year before marrying Nester Kohut of Emerson, Manitoba, in 1960. Nester’s banking career – first with Scotiabank and later TD – took the family from Emerson to Kinistino and Tisdale, Saskatchewan; and Winnipegosis, Portage La Prairie and Deloraine in Manitoba over the first 24 years of their marriage, before they moved to Carman in 1984.
Once her daughters were in school, Donna worked at various jobs over the years, including the Eatons catalogue order office in Tisdale, the admissions desk at Winnipegosis Hospital, the Helping Hand Agency in Portage, and as a teacher’s aide in both Deloraine and Carman. She received an educational assistant’s diploma from the University of Winnipeg, and retired from Carman Elementary School in 2006. She also belonged to several service organizations.
Donna has now been reunited with her parents, Neill “Bo” & Clara (Norberg) Gamble, her younger brother Jim Gamble, and her granddaughter Kathleen (Katie) Bianco. She is survived by her husband of 65 years, Nester; two daughters & their partners, Lori & Sam Bianco of Woodbridge, Ontario, and Barbara Kohut & Ken Keith of Winnipeg; sisters-in-law Jewell Gamble, Mary Stewart, Doris Ginter and Frances Kohut; and brothers-in-law Maurice (& Doris) Kohut and Walter Kohut. She will be remembered with love by Jenna (Funk) and Wayne Nussey and their daughters Brooklyn, Erika and Kylie, as well as many cousins, nieces and nephews, and neighbours and friends from the many places she & Nester lived. Thank you to everyone who has rallied around the family with calls, messages, food and remembrances of Donna.
Cremation has taken place, and the funeral will be held on Thursday, January 8, 2026, at 2 PM at Carman United Church, with Pastor Trudy Thorarinson of Grace St. John’s Anglican-Lutheran Church presiding, followed by a social time in the church hall, and a private interment at a later date. The service will be livestreamed and available online later.
A reminder that while Donna loved flowers, she was also very scent-sensitive. We know she would have appreciated donations to Grace St. John’s in Carman, her church home for the past 42 years. She was baptized a Lutheran but was a strong Episcopalian/Anglican all her life, and an active member of the Anglican congregations wherever she lived. Donations may be sent via e-transfer to [email protected].
January 6, 1941 - January 1, 2026
Donna passed away suddenly at her home in Carman, Manitoba, on the afternoon of New Year’s Day, after spending Christmas with her family. Her 85th birthday would have been on January 6th.
Donna was very proud to be from Hallock, Minnesota. She was born and raised there, graduated from high school there in 1959, and remained in close touch with her classmates her entire life. After some 40 years as a landed immigrant in Canada, she became a dual Canadian-American citizen. She attended nursing school in Minneapolis for a year before marrying Nester Kohut of Emerson, Manitoba, in 1960. Nester’s banking career – first with Scotiabank and later TD – took the family from Emerson to Kinistino and Tisdale, Saskatchewan; and Winnipegosis, Portage La Prairie and Deloraine in Manitoba over the first 24 years of their marriage, before they moved to Carman in 1984.
Once her daughters were in school, Donna worked at various jobs over the years, including the Eatons catalogue order office in Tisdale, the admissions desk at Winnipegosis Hospital, the Helping Hand Agency in Portage, and as a teacher’s aide in both Deloraine and Carman. She received an educational assistant’s diploma from the University of Winnipeg, and retired from Carman Elementary School in 2006. She also belonged to several service organizations.
Donna has now been reunited with her parents, Neill “Bo” & Clara (Norberg) Gamble, her younger brother Jim Gamble, and her granddaughter Kathleen (Katie) Bianco. She is survived by her husband of 65 years, Nester; two daughters & their partners, Lori & Sam Bianco of Woodbridge, Ontario, and Barbara Kohut & Ken Keith of Winnipeg; sisters-in-law Jewell Gamble, Mary Stewart, Doris Ginter and Frances Kohut; and brothers-in-law Maurice (& Doris) Kohut and Walter Kohut. She will be remembered with love by Jenna (Funk) and Wayne Nussey and their daughters Brooklyn, Erika and Kylie, as well as many cousins, nieces and nephews, and neighbours and friends from the many places she & Nester lived. Thank you to everyone who has rallied around the family with calls, messages, food and remembrances of Donna.
Cremation has taken place, and the funeral will be held on Thursday, January 8, 2026, at 2 PM at Carman United Church, with Pastor Trudy Thorarinson of Grace St. John’s Anglican-Lutheran Church presiding, followed by a social time in the church hall, and a private interment at a later date. The service will be livestreamed and available online later.
A reminder that while Donna loved flowers, she was also very scent-sensitive. We know she would have appreciated donations to Grace St. John’s in Carman, her church home for the past 42 years. She was baptized a Lutheran but was a strong Episcopalian/Anglican all her life, and an active member of the Anglican congregations wherever she lived. Donations may be sent via e-transfer to [email protected].