Constance (Connie) Duane Donahue, 93, of Litchfield Park, Arizona, passed away on October 22, 2025. Born November 30, 1931, in Boston, Massachusetts, she was the daughter of the late Marshall and Madeline Duane.
Connie became a Roman Catholic at the age of seven while attending The Newton Country Day School of the Sacred Heart. She graduated high school from Northampton School for Girls in 1949 and earned her degree in Early Childhood Education from Connecticut College for Women in 1953. She obtained her Master of Arts in Theology from St. Thomas Seminary in Denver, Colorado in May 1988.
After college graduation, Connie moved to Providence, Rhode Island to teach kindergarten, where she met her husband, Edward Thomas Donahue (deceased 2020), in January 1954. They married later that year and went on to have eight children: Mary, James, John, Ann, Edward, Michael (deceased 2023), Stephen, and David (deceased 2017). Connie was blessed with 21 grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. Connie and Ed lived in many places during their marriage – Massachusetts, New York, Colorado, Michigan, California, Wyoming, New Mexico, and Arizona.
Throughout her life, Connie made a significant impact on her community. She founded the Great Books Club in Denver and later taught CCD to middle and high school students in St. Joseph, Michigan. In 1988, Connie and her family moved to Arizona, where she served as a docent at the Heard Museum in Phoenix for 12 years. She was a Eucharistic minister and lector at St. Thomas of Aquinas Catholic Church in Avondale, Arizona.
Her faith and dedication to family and others touched many lives. Her favorite saint was St. Clare of Assisi, and her Catholic faith was greatly influenced by philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who said “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
Her funeral Mass will be on Thursday, October 30th, at 1:00 p.m. at St. Thomas of Aquinas Catholic Church in Avondale, with a private family-only inurnment following the Mass. In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions to St. John Paul II Catholic High School in Avondale, Arizona (https://www.jp2catholic.org/apps/pages/make-a-gift). Connie will be deeply missed by her family and all who knew her.