Donna Christine Granroth

Donna Christine Granroth, 78, of Chassell, Michigan died peacefully at her home on Monday, October 13, 2025. She was born on March 14, 1947, in Laurium, Michigan to Reuben and Edna (Joki) Waara.

They raised her with her younger sister Jeanette on a farm in nearby Traprock Valley, and they later moved to a home in Centennial, just North of Calumet.

Donna graduated from Calumet High School in 1965. She attended two years at Suomi College and then transferred to finish her Bachelor’s degree, majoring in English Education with a minor in Art, at Northern Michigan University in Marquette, Michigan.

She taught briefly at Dollar Bay schools and was then married to Ronald Granroth in February of 1970. They moved to Naperville, Illinois for a time while he worked at Bell Labs, but when she became pregnant with their first child, Eric, they moved back to the Copper Country to raise a family.

Eventually, they settled into their home on Paradise Road in Chassell Township, where Ronald and Donna raised their eight children.

When her husband, Ron, became disabled from a long untreated case of Lyme’s Disease, Donna stood faithfully by his side for decades of illness until his death in 2017. She augmented their household income during this season by working as an in-home health aide.

Donna was a woman of Christian faith, believing in the forgiveness of sins through Jesus Christ, and was a member of the First Apostolic Lutheran Church. As her health declined, she continued to listen to Sunday services through the church’s phone broadcast and was grateful for the ministrations of the church’s pastors and members who came to visit her in her final days.

Donna possessed a lifelong clarity of mind, artfulness for words, and love of plants and gardening, but her true legacy is as an example of profound, sacrificial, and nurturing love that she showed to the very end for her family.

Donna was preceded in death by her parents, Reuben and Edna Waara; her husband of 47 years, Ronald Granroth; and her granddaughter Seraphina Granroth.

Donna is survived by her eight children, Eric (Jessica) Granroth of Camden Wyoming Delaware, Lisa Granroth of Hancock, Davin (Amy) Granroth of Saint Charles, Catherine (Sameer) Sudame of Washington Township Ohio, Aaron (Krista) Granroth of Ironwood, Alan (Lucy) Granroth of Chassell, Benjamin Granroth of Chassell, and Peter (Beth) Granroth of Chassell; several grandchildren; and one sister, Jeanette (Gary) Miller of Marquette.