Donna Lee Zern Foster's Obituary
Donna Lee Zern Foster, loving wife, mother, grandmother and geat-grandmother; surrounded by her loving family, passed away Thursday February 15, 2018.She was born March 21, 1934 to Jack C Zern and Helen Lysowski Zern in Kansas City,Mo. The family moved to Dallas in 1935 and lived in the Lakewood area. She attended Robert E.Lee grade school , JL Long , and Woodrow Wilson High School, graduating in June 1951.After spending a year at Texas Tech and returning to Dallas, she married Donald G Foster on July 19,1952. They had been sweethearts since 1947.They moved to College Station and their first child was born in May 1953. Donna kept 5 children, of working mothers, so she could be home with her son. She and Don also worked at the movie theater and book store to pay for his education.After Don completed Texas A&M in 1956, they moved to Dallas and had a second son in 1957. One of their promises made was that she would go back to school and finish her college. Donna started SMU in 1959 and wanted to become a school teacher. In 1962, school was interrupted to have her third son. She finally finished SMU in 1965 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Education.The next 30 years were spent raising her 3 sons, teaching grade school for 17 years at Richardson Heights and several other grade schools. She received a Masters of Science degree from UTD in 1976. She was fluent in Spanish, French and German having lived in France for 2 years and Germany for 3 years as well as London for 1year.In addition to her love of languages, she was an avid reader, gardener, jogger and exerciser .. She was a sweet, talented and beautiful wife and mother. She had to be busy at all time.Donna loved to travel and during her life, she and Don traveled to 120 countries around the world, over 50 years. Donna suffered for 14 years with Alzheimer’s and the last 5 years in a private facility with caregiver Angela Cogar. We can only hope that others with Alzheimer’s get the same wonderful and loving care that Donna received. Thank you Angela!She is survived by her husband of 65 years, Don, son Charles and wife Adele, son John and wife Mayet, granddaughter’s Stefanie and Sara and husband Jason. Grandsons, Garrett and Matthew and wife Jennifer.A memorial service will be held at The Tradition Prestonwood on Saturday February 24, at 2:00pm.Donations can be made to your choice or the Alzheimer’s Disease Research.
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