Grace McDonough

Grace McDonough, age 100, died peacefully Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026.

Mass of Christian Burial will be held 11 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026, at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Prairieburg with interment in the Immaculate Conception Cemetery, rural Monticello. Friends may call from4 until 8 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2026, at Goettsch Funeral Home, Monticello. Friends may also call on Thursday from 10 until 11 a.m. at the church.  In lieu of flowers a memorial fund has been established. 

Surviving are six children, Deb McDonough, Donna (Kevin) Arthofer, Larry McDonough, Meg (Joe) Wheeler, Ellen (Tony) Alessio, Barb (Todd) Peck; and 10 grandchildren; four step-grandchildren; in-laws, Mary Jane Crowley and Bill (Beth) McDonough and several nieces and nephews.  She was preceded in death by her parents; her husband Donald in 1996; two brothers, George and John White and two sisters, Katherine and Mary Turnis. 

Marjorie Grace White was born Aug. 17, 1925, at home on the family farm, four miles west of Worthington.  She was the youngest daughter of Lawrence and Katherine Turnis, White.  Grace attended both the rural schools near her home and St. Paul’s Catholic School in Worthington.  She graduated from Sacred Heart High School in Monticello in 1942.  Grace worked at the Chet Condit Insurance agency in Monticello for a year before going to Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Dubuque. She graduated in 1946 and returned to Monticello where she was a nurse at John McDonald Hospital for several years.  She went back to Dubuque to work at the new Xaiver Hospital before moving to Iowa City. Grace worked as a surgical nurse at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City until she got married.

Grace married Donald McDonough on July 23, 1955, at Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Monticello.  The couple owned and operated McDonough Feed Store and farmed in Castle Grove Township.