Donna Bavec, age 87, passed away on January 3, 2026, after a brief and unexpected illness at Mercy Health Hospital in Lorain, Ohio.

Donna was born January 3, 1939, in Cleveland, Ohio, to the late Luther and Virginia Paddock. She attended Jane Adams High School and was a homemaker as well as working in a few factories. She was baptized as one of Jehovah's Witnesses on December 4, 2005. She loved her Christian family and loved sharing the good news of God's Kingdom with others until her health began to fail her. She found a way to continue to share her cherished beliefs by writing letters. When her hands began to fail her, she enlisted the aid of her daughter and her computer to continue sending out those letters. Donna loved playing cards with her friends on a weekly basis, along with listening to music and dancing in her chair. Uno and 9's were her favorite games. Her cat Gizmo hardly left her side.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Joseph Bavec; her daughter, Sandra; and her brother, Joseph Murphy.

Survived by her children, William Simpson, Barbara Loffer, Virginia Greene, Roy Smith Jr., and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, along with her sisters Patricia Murphy, Barbara Struble, and Ruth Novak.

Services will be held at St. Stephen UCC, located at 905 East Perkins Ave., Sandusky, OH 44870, at 3 PM, with a reception to follow at Ruth Novak's home, located at 2315 Westwind Dr., Sandusky, OH.