Happy Birthday Grandma Donna

Feb 20
by Don Taylor

Today, I remember my grandmother, Madonna[i] “Donna” Mae Montran Kees. She was born on 20 Feb 1893 in Albion, Michigan[ii].

Madonna married Chester Fenyvessy on 1 October 1911 in Willand, Ontario, Canada.[iii]

Madonna married Thomas Valentine Rooney on 24 November 1915 at St. Mary’s Church in Waltham, Massachusetts. [iv]

Donna married Samson Amsterdam on 19 April 1926 in Manhattan, New York. Donna and Sammy separated about 1932.

In about 1937, Donna began living with Russell Kees in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She began using Kees as a surname then.[v]

She died on 14 September 1976 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her generosity extended beyond her life when she donated her body to science, which was used at the University of Minnesota for several years. In 1979, her cremains were buried in a U of M donor’s location at Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

I have six postings about her via my Brown & Montran webpage. I also have an extensive number (over 160) of posts about her vaudeville career.

For more information on Madonna “Donna” Mae Montran, see:

• My Blog: Madonna Mae Montran (1893-1976)
• Family Search: 9D6T-QFT.
• My Ancestry Family Tree: Brown-Montran.
• Other Ancestry Trees: FNAME is found in 55 Ancestry Trees.

I have very few photos of Donna after 1930, as most were destroyed during the 1960s. If you have photographs, documents, or recollections relating to Madonna “Donna” Mae Montran Kees, I would welcome hearing from you. Every additional detail helps preserve her story for future generations.

I remember Donna nearly every day and try to honor her through my genealogy blog with a special section regarding her vaudeville career.

ENDNOTES

[i] I only learned she was born Madonna in the 1990s when I began researching family history. She went by Donna beginning in the early 1920s.
[ii] Donna always said she was born in Detroit, MI. I only learned she was born in Albion a few years ago. Albion is about 100 miles west of Detroit.
[iii] Registered as Madonna Montran Holdsworth, Donna was using the surname of a stepfather. Neither my mother nor my Uncle Russ knew of this marriage until I learned of it while doing my genealogy work in the early 2000s. I have not found any evidence that she used the surname Fenneyvessey.
[iv] Neither my mother nor my Uncle Russ knew of this marriage until I learned of it while doing my genealogy work in the early 2000s. I have not found any evidence that she used the surname Rooney.
[v] I have searched extensively for a marriage of Donna to Russel Kees and have been unable to find such a record. I believe she and her children just used the surname as a matter of convenience.

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