LaDonna Janzen Hopkins

LaDonna Janzen Hopkins departed this life April 8, 2022. LaDonna's life was a model of living by her two essential values: generosity and gratitude. Her natural kindness and love offered to all she met endeared her to many and fostered community wherever she went. She was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in January and bravely engaged in successful treatment with the help of many caring providers and loving friends, but her cause of death was heart failure brought on by longstanding heart issues about which she had not been aware.

LaDonna was born December 28, 1943, in Enid, Oklahoma, to Abe and Lydia Janzen. She grew up within her Mennonite background on the family farm along with her brother, Gary, driving tractor and harvesting wheat, playing the marimba and basketball during her school years. It was from her parents she learned the precious art of hospitality, and she continued to practice that art throughout her life.

LaDonna attended Oklahoma University and graduated from Phillips University where she met a ministerial student named Paul Hopkins. They married in 1965 and had two children, Sean, and Sarah. Following graduation she taught school in Enid for four years, finding particular satisfaction in teaching developmentally delayed children. Following Paul's graduation from Seminary they moved several times to live and work in Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, and Texas, before finally settling in Albuquerque in 1992.

In her professional life, LaDonna's varied work displayed her wide interests and her commitment to improving people's lives. She served on the national staff of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), where she and Paul traveled the world working to strengthen marriages and families. She and Paul together worked for three years as co-executive directors of the Association of Couples for Marriage Enrichment, during which time she met with President Jimmy Carter at the White House and was interviewed by Jane Pauley of the Today Show to foster better marriages. In Indianapolis she led a YWCA program to encourage and support women to enter the construction and trades industries. LaDonna was Director of Children's Ministries at First Christian Church in Amarillo and later was executive director of the Christian Church's Rickman Center in Jefferson City, MO, fostering hospitality to campers, retreatants, and meeting-goers. She was the first full-time executive of Habitat for Humanity in Albuquerque. Finally, she encouraged philanthropy through the United Way of Central New Mexico, retiring as Vice-President in 2010. Following retirement, she worked as a consultant with many nonprofits in New Mexico to foster excellence and encourage charitable giving.

At the heart of LaDonna's life were family, friends, and community. She loved her son and daughter deeply, and for the past 10 years delighted especially in her cherished granddaughter Amelia. She was a loving wife to Paul, sister to Gary, Aunt to the Reeves clans, and family member with many who were part of her chosen extended family. Her capacity for loving friendship was boundless, and her commitment to better relationships and community was expressed in varied ways, including time spent in such projects as chairing the Forsyth County Council on the Status of Women in North Carolina, serving on the founding board of the Grief Resource Center in Albuquerque, and participating in the Common Ground group of women for several years. She brought joy and had fun in all these things, but perhaps her greatest playful activity was attending the Indy 500 race almost every year for 50 years.

LaDonna is survived by her husband of 56 years, Paul, her daughter, Sarah Tolch, son-in-law, Andy Tolch, and granddaughter, Amelia Tolch, of St. Louis, her daughter-in-law, Naomi Elizabeth Montoya, of Albuquerque, and brother, Gary Janzen, of Enid, Oklahoma. She is also survived by her nephew and family, John, Jasmine, Ella, and Tyler Reeves of Denver, niece and spouse, Kathy and Karl Critz of Cambridge, MA, and sister-in-law, Mary Reeves, of Denver. She mourned until the end of her life the death of her son, Sean, in Albuquerque in 2013.

A celebration of LaDonna's life will be held on May 3 at 1:00 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church in Albuquerque. In lieu of flowers the family encourages contributions in LaDonna's honor be made to the Sean Hopkins Fund at the Albuquerque Community Foundation, 624 Tijeras Ave. NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102, or to the Sarah Tolch Fund at the St. Louis Community Foundation, 2 Oak Knoll Park, Clayton, MO 63105, or the Amelia Tolch Fund at the St. Louis Zoo, Development Office, One Government Drive, St. Louis, MO 63110, or to Saranam, 1028 Eubank Blvd. NE, Suite F, Albuquerque, NM 87112.