Donna Irene Basch, 86, of Galena, Illinois, died peacefully on September 15th, 2026.

Donna was born on June 27th, 1940, in Chicago, Illinois, to the late Lawrence and Alice Tickner. The second of four children, she grew up in the Bowmanville neighborhood of Chicago on Berwyn Avenue, where one of her first vivid memories was eating a freshly-picked tomato from the family garden. She attended Chappell Elementary and graduated from Amundsen High School, where she was an Illinois State Scholar, in 1958.

After high school, Donna left Chicago for Los Angeles, where she lived in West Hollywood and worked a variety of jobs before settling into magazine publishing. She married Howard Basch in 1965. The marriage ended in divorce in 1978. They raised their two children, Marc and Dana, in the San Fernando Valley, where they kept chickens in the backyard, Donna grew roses that blossomed all year, and sometimes a neighbor would clop by on horseback.

In 1979 Donna and the kids moved to Galena. Donna opened a bookstore on Main Street that year, The Curiosity Shop, which she ran until its closing in 1987. In 1983 the family moved into a brick miner’s cottage on the west side, and over the years Donna transformed the yard into a wild and wonderful garden loaded with Japanese ferns, poppies, irises, zinnias, morning glories, and purple coneflowers.

From 1987-1998, Donna was the executive director of the Galena Chamber of Commerce, after which she worked various positions in retail on Main Street and spent a number of years on the visitor staff at the Galena Historical Society.

Donna had an unstoppable obsession with garage sales and thrifting, and collected books, pottery, folk art, antique inkwells, strange clothing, vintage toys, jigsaw puzzles, and many other treasures, and resold many of her finds on her eBay storefront. She loved mystery and crime novels and British television shows, especially Coronation Street and Doctor Who, and baked an estimated ten thousand cookies in her lifetime, roughly half of which were consumed by her grandchildren, Max and Ada, with whom she shared an extraordinary and close bond. Donna was beloved for her unfailingly sweet and unconventional nature as a mother, grandma, sister, and not least, mother-in-law.

Donna is survived by her two children, Marc Basch (Sandra) of Brooklyn, New York, and Dana Basch (Mark) of Evansville, Wisconsin; two grandchildren, Max and Ada, and two step-grandchildren, Haley and Ollie; her brother Richard Tickner (Lorene), of Galena, and sister Becky Tickner Muller, of Pingree Grove, Illinois; and many nieces and nephews. She was preceded in death by her parents and her brother Dave Tickner.

Following a private interment of Donna’s ashes at Casper Creek Natural Cemetery, a memorial service will be held at Wyndham Galena on Sunday, September 27th, at 1:00 pm. All who knew and loved Donna are welcome to attend. There will be cookies.

The family wishes to thank the staff of Midwest Medical and Hospice of Dubuque, and Donna’s many Galena friends who loved and supported her, especially her human neighbors of Wight Street and furry neighbors Max and Murphy and Trouble the cat (but not the neighborhood deer that ate her hostas). In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Wisconsin Public Radio, Iowa Public Television, the Arbor Foundation, and the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Mom’s parting wish is that everyone please vote in November.

Online condolences for Donna’s family may be left at www.tristatecremationcenter.com