Dr. Denise Downs, 72, of Bluffton, passed away early Saturday morning, Nov. 16, 2024, at her residence.
Denise was born on April 30, 1952, in Washington D.C. and lost her battle with angiosarcoma but won the victory over death on Nov. 16, 2024.
Besides Washington D.C., being an Air Force dependent, she and her family had lived many other places including Fleury-en-biere, France; Madison, Wisconsin; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Montgomery, Alabama; and Fairborn, Ohio.
She graduated from Sidney Lanier High School in Montgomery in 1970 and earned her B.A. in Latin and Braille in 1973 and a B.S. in education in 1975 from The Ohio State University. She taught Latin at Shaw High School in Cleveland, Ohio, for three years and then, after receiving a Summer Fulbright scholarship to study in Italy, decided to pursue a master’s degree in Italian at the University of Perugia in Perugia, Italy.
She returned to the states in 1981, continuing her studies, this time in science courses at Northwestern Oklahoma State University near her parents’ home in Buffalo, Oklahoma, where she also served as a volunteer EMT. She then decided to attend paramedic school in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was accepted to the University of Oklahoma medical school and received her doctoral degree in 1994.
After her residency at Riley Children’s Hospital in Indianapolis, she began her practice in Pediatrics at Caylor-Nickel Medical Clinic in Bluffton. She loved the community of Bluffton and especially loved the caring of her young patients and relationships she developed with them and their parents. They were “her children.”
Denise was multi-talented and excelled in music — violin, cello, piano and guitar — and also enjoyed singing and playing handbells.
She developed a passion for creative writing and had several stories published in medical journals.
Traveling with family and friends brought her much joy, including several summers studying French at Coeur de France in Sancerre, France, with her sister Danielle. In 2016, after choosing to finally retire from her lifelong career of caring for children to pursue a degree in music at IPFW, she developed breast cancer. Fighting hard and enduring all treatments, she was diagnosed with the very rare angiosarcoma in 2022.
Unwilling to allow this disease to overcome her, she prayed for peace and faced each day with the most amazing positive attitude and sense of humor! She chose to cherish every moment.
She was preceded in death by her older sister, DeAnne Mitchum, and her parents, Eldon and Elyn Downs. She is survived by her sisters, Danielle McKinley (Gene) and DeLys Wapaha (Wesley), four nieces and five nephews, 11 great-nieces and 15 great-nephews, and one great-great-niece and three great-great-nephews.
A Celebration of Life Service will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, at the First United Methodist Church with the Rev. Sherrie Drake and Pastor Les Cantrell officiating. A special musical prelude tribute will begin around 10:40 a.m.
Memorials may be made to Angiosarcoma Awareness and can be sent to the funeral home or online at cureasc.org.
Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to the care of the Lemler family of Thoma/Rich, Lemler Funeral Home in Bluffton. Friends can send online condolences to the family at www.thomarich.com.