Donna Purcell of Bemidji, Minn., formerly of East Grand Forks, Minn., died Friday, January 23, 2026, at Sanford Health Neilson Place in Bemidji. She was 75.
The youngest child of Frank and Agnes (Telle) Klint, Donna Louise Klint was born on April 5, 1950, in Grand Forks, N.D. She attended public schools in East Grand Forks, graduating from East Grand Forks Senior High in 1968.
She married John William Purcell on July 17, 1971, and with him raised two children. During her 37-year career at Kmart in Grand Forks she held a variety of roles, working in department management, customer service, and office management/accounting. And she somehow always managed to make juggling her full-time job and her busy life as a mom and homemaker look easy.
Donna was a smart, caring soul who had a self-deprecating sense of humor and a quick wit. She was a snappy dresser, a loving baker and cook, an enthusiastic dancer, a skilled bargain shopper, and a proud “Bowegian” (owing to her Bohemian/Czech and Norwegian heritage) who liked to say she lived in “Brrrr-midji.”
Donna drank weak black coffee like it was water, never said no to cookies or ice cream after dinner, and had a lifelong crush on Elvis Presley, whose dance moves and music she adored to the end.
A gifted planner with a knack for organization, Donna was the heart and mind behind many birthday celebrations and holiday gatherings for her large extended family in the late 1970s, 1980s, and early 1990s: lively New Year’s Eve parties around the Purcell basement bar and pool table, festive Fourth of July cookouts in the 18th Street backyard, and massive and merry Christmas Eve bashes when the pileup of presents in the living room almost buried the tree. No matter the occasion, John and Donna delighted in hosting their sisters, brothers, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, in-laws, and friends at their East Grand Forks home.
Donna shared an especially close, decades-long bond with her aunt Helen Knutson, whom she cared for lovingly until her passing in 2000 at the age of 91.
After Donna retired from Kmart in 2005, the Purcells joined many of their closest family members in relocating from Greater Grand Forks to the Beltrami County area. Donna then worked in the check processing department at First National Bank of Bemidji and retired fully in 2012.
In retirement, John and Donna made numerous long road trips, zig-zagging across the country to visit friends and family near and far in Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa, Arizona, Texas, and Alabama. At their home in rural Bemidji, the couple remained active gardening, groundskeeping, doting on pets, feeding local wildlife, and going on walks.
Donna kept a remarkably rosy outlook and upbeat spirit as she first began to experience minor short-term memory issues in the early 2010s. During the last decade of her life, she fought valiantly and kept laughing as her early onset Alzheimer’s disease (“my half’s-heimer’s” as she called it) worsened.
What Donna endured during her final few years was in no way fun. But more often than not, she stayed true to her nature and kept right on smiling, joking, dancing, and having fun.
She is survived by her children, Chad Purcell (Nichole Aksamit Purcell) of Des Moines, Iowa, and Joni (Chris) Hager of Bemidji; and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her husband, who died March 12, 2024; her parents; her brother, Orlen F. Klint; and her sisters, Rosalind “Toupie” Williams and Marilyn Pietrzak.
A memorial service and celebration of her life will be held at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, 2026, at Cease Family Funeral Home, 2807 Irvine Ave NW, Bemidji, MN 56601. Condolences may be left at ceasefuneralhome.com.