Nancy Louise Dorothy (Brown)

Nancy Louise Brown, 59, of 19900 N. Cascade Road, Peosta, died at 4:16 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 7, 2010, at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, Iowa City.

Services will be at 10:30 a.m. Monday, Jan. 11, at Reiff Funeral Home, Farley, with Deacon James Kean presiding. Burial will be in Dubuque Memorial Gardens, south of Dubuque. Friends may call from 2 to 7 p.m. today at the funeral home.

She was born on May 23, 1950, in Kansas City, Mo., daughter of Robert and Fern (Severs) Dorothy. She married Gerald Brown on Jan. 8, 1982, in Dubuque.

She was a graduate of Dubuque Senior High School and earned her associate's degree in nursing from Northeast Iowa Community College in Calmar. She acquired her Bachelor of Arts in nursing from the University of Dubuque and received her master's degree in counseling from Loras College.

Nancy spent more than 30 years teaching and practicing nursing. She served on a debriefing team for area EMS technicians and was part of an emergency assistance team sent from Dubuque to the United Airline crash in Sioux City in 1989.

Nancy's family and friends meant the world to her. She was always the "go to" person who others looked to for organization, advice and/or help. She truly was a healer and opened her arms and her heart to anyone who was hurting. She took great pleasure in shopping and giving special gifts to those close to her.

Surviving are her husband, Gerald "Holmes" Brown, of rural Peosta; three children, Michael (Kelly) Drapeau, of Zionsville, Ind., Megan (Jeffrey) Lancioni, of Apple Valley, Minn., and Ryan (fiancee, Emily Jasper) Brown, of Stoughton, Wis.; two grandchildren, Katelyn and Nathan Drapeau; her parents, Robert and Fern Dorothy, of Dubuque; three siblings, Phil (Cheryl Whitney) Dorothy, of Iowa City, Kathy (Roger) Loewenberg, of Peosta, and Becky (Scott) Wodrich, of Key West, Iowa.