Dona Mae Evelyn (Schwandt) Naylor

Dona Mae Naylor, 102, passed away August 12, 2025, at Neilson Place, Bemidji, MN.

Funeral Services will be 10:30 am, Thursday, August 21, 2025, at the First Presbyterian Church, Bemidji with visitation one hour prior to the service at church. Interment will be in Greenwood Cemetery, Bemidji, MN. 

Dona Mae was born on October 9. 1922 in Cedar Township, Martin County, Minnesota to Carl and Sophie Schwandt. She grew up and attended Public School in Welcome, Minnesota where she participated in pep squad and GAA. She was also an active member of the Methodist Church. She enjoyed being a member of Girl Scout Troop #1 where she earned the Golden Eaglet Award in 1938.

After she graduated from high School she worked at the Welcome Telephone Co. and then at the Fairmont Telephone Co. in 1942. In 1943 she went to Camp Pickett Virginia to work as a base communications switchboard operator in the post signal office. She met William Naylor while at Camp Pickett and they were married in Blackstone, Virginia before he shipped out to North Africa. In 1944 Dona Mae returned to Minnesota to work at Fairmont Railway Motors as a receptionist and PBX operator. She then moved to Bemidji when William was discharged from the Army in the fall of 1945.

Dona Mae worked as a secretary at Central School and later volunteered as a Gray Lady at the Lutheran Hospital. Dona Mae was an active member at the First Presbyterian Church where she taught Sunday School, was active in a woman's circle, as well as serving as an elder and the long-range planning committee. She was one of the founders of the Bemidji Ladies Curling Club in 1951 and was active into the 90's. She served as President on three occasions as well as a term as president of the Minnesota Womens Curling Association, Chairperson of the 1988 United States Curling National Bonspiel, one of the team members representing the USA in Scotland in 1976 as well as Chairperson of the Ladies Scottish Tour when the Scots came here in 1991.  Dona Mae was also a Cub Scout Den mother and a life member of the VFW Auxiliary. She loved to sew and to read. She served as a board member and secretary of the Bemidji Town & Country Club

Dona Mae enjoyed hiking, riding bicycle, water skiing, and cross-country skiing with her husband William. In the summer one could see them on their Sunday after church ride on their Schwinn tandem bicycle cruising around the town or on one of their canoe trips around the lake or up the Mississippi.

She was a very loving and caring person and will be missed by those she touched in her life.

Dona Mae is survived by her two sons Michael and Robert, grandchildren Alison (Beau) Seeger, William (Michelle) Naylor, great grandchildren Rhett Seeger, Hakon and Signe Naylor, and several nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by her husband William “Chub” Naylor, parents Carl and Sophie Schwandt, and her brother Willard Schwandt.

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